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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27162080">Apotheosis</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dev14/pseuds/Dev14'>Dev14</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Apotheosis [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha Kuchiki Byakuya, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Animal Instincts, Badass Renji (Bleach), Biting, ByaRen, Claiming Bites, Conflict, Erotic Dreams, Family Secrets, Implied Mpreg, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, Injured Renji, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Minor CFYOW novel reference, Non-Consensual Touching, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pheromones, Possessive Behavior, Protective Characters, Romance, Scenting, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, in this case the entire noble houses, of sorts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:13:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>33,233</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27162080</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dev14/pseuds/Dev14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone was acting weird around a seemingly out-of-the-loop Renji, and it got worse when his captain suddenly put a claiming bite on him.</p><p>Excerpt:</p><p> </p><p>  <i>Renji gulped, fighting the urge to take a step back as his captain stalked closer, akin to a predator in his mind than anything else. Despite being the taller of the two, the raven seemed to loom over him, and he finally had no choice but to retreat until his back hit against the door. He only wished this situation was a bad dream more than anything else, too surreal to be true.</i></p><p> </p><p>  <i>“You wish not to tell me about your change in scent, then?”</i></p><p> </p><p>  <i>The inquiry brought his panicking mind to a halting stop.</i></p><p> </p><p>  <i>“My... scent?”</i></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Abarai Renji/Kuchiki Byakuya</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Apotheosis [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032267</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>69</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>167</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is a plot bunny that has always been haunting my mind since I got into writing for the fandom. The plot bunny being the trope, and nothing else. Nope, no plot planned, ok maybe a vague one. You're going in blind, so am I. Reassuring isn't it LOL</p><p>And if you're familiar with me, I'm a sporadic writer, and only write when I have the inspiration and motivation for it, so a warning that updates will be sparse...? XD</p><p>The tone of this chapter will get progressively thicker from light humor to sexual tension, beware xd</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Betas rule the world. The largest in number, the most in power.<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <em>Skin slapping against skin; harsh, merciless, insatiable.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Ah, ah, hm, more.”</em>
</p><p><br/>
Alphas, the reverent blue blood. Rare and invaluable, their strength knows no bounds.<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <em>“Please, pleaseplease,” he begged, clenching his thighs on muscled hips, seeking warmth that was not given.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Shut up!”</em>
</p><p><br/>
Omegas...?<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <em>“Fuck, I’m coming!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Eyes wide, suddenly cold with fear. “No, not inside, please not—!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What are you, a woman?!”</em>
</p><p><br/>
They don’t exist.<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <em>The man walked away, leaving him on the bed—alone, scared and crying.</em>
</p><p><br/>
...at least, that’s what we were told.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>“Wait up, Rukia! Jeez, you run fast for a midget,” Renji grumbled, jogging ahead to catch up to his smaller friend.</p><p>“Who are you calling a midget, fool!” the friend in question stopped, turned to face him, and elbowed his gut sharply. He wheezed, clutching at his aching stomach, and glared at the petite raven in annoyance.</p><p>“Sharp ears for a midget,” he muttered to himself, too quiet for her to hear, but earned him a glare, nonetheless. “We’re supposed to be patrolling, not playing house with your crush.”</p><p>“Cru—” she stammered, suddenly flustered at the dead-on remark, “Ichigo is simply going to help us do our last day of the mission, stupid pineapple!”</p><p>“Yes, yes.” He rolled his eyes and pushed past her to their destination—Kurosaki Clinic.</p><p>“Listen here—<em>crap</em>.”</p><p>“What now?” Renji sighed, turning around but saw the other shinigami was looking at her beeping soul pager. A hollow.</p><p>“Where is it?”</p><p>“Not far,” she said hurriedly and running past him, knowing he would follow.</p><p>An abandoned park, away from the residential areas with huge underbrush and tall trees, collateral from an old reconstruction plan some years ago. The hollow was humongous, dark red as dried blood, and a gaping maw on its chest and horse-like skeleton as its head. All of these hollows were ugly, in Renji’s opinion, safe for those humanoid Arrancars they fought on the war—a bitch of a battle, if he would say so himself.</p><p>Though the two realized they weren’t even needed. When they landed on the site, the hollow was already cut in half through the middle, before dissipating into a million dust. A giant sword swung up, before landing softly on an experienced swordsman shoulder in a nonchalant manner.</p><p>“You’re late,” Ichigo called from his side, a smug grin plastered on his handsome teenage face, his shockingly orange hair swept out of his face effortlessly.</p><p>“Little shit,” the redhead chuckled, punching the teen on his shoulder in an amiable greeting between guys. The orange-head nodded, slinging an arm around Renji, and smiled at the only girl in the group.</p><p>“Yo, Rukia.”</p><p>“You just got lucky you were near the area, dumbass,” the girl frowned and kicked his shin, earning herself a pained groan from the other. She really was a violent one.</p><p>“You’re welcome,” Ichigo mumbled, then paused his complaints. He sniffed the air, turning his face this way and that, making the other two looked at him as if he grew himself a second head.</p><p>“You guys smell that?”</p><p>Renji exchanged worried looks with the smaller raven and raised his brow, “smell what?”</p><p>Ichigo ignored the question in favor of walking around, sniffing the air deeply, turning to Rukia to check if it was from her, but it wasn’t. “I dunno it’s, it smells <em>really</em> good—”</p><p>He stopped when he was back by Renji’s side. He leaned close, too close for comfort, and shoved his nose to the crook of the redhead’s neck. Rukia was positively scandalized.</p><p>“Ichigo I swear if you don’t get off my—”</p><p>“It’s you,” the teenager cut Renji’s warning, looked at the slightly taller man with a strange expression.</p><p>“Me? My cologne?”</p><p>“His shampoo?”</p><p>“<em>No</em>,” the youngest of the bunch groaned, shaking his head, “it’s not that kind of smell. it’s like, I don’t know how to explain it—” he paused and looked down, deep in thought.</p><p>“You know what, never mind, I guess it’s just your shampoo.”</p><p>“Wha-at, I changed my cologne and you commented on my <em>shampoo</em>?”</p><p>“Yeah it’s your cologne—whatever!” Ichigo exclaimed, throwing his hands in exasperation, and walked away to where his body was currently occupied by his personal mod soul, Kon.</p><p>The redhead blinked once, and twice, before peering down at Rukia. “What did <em>I </em>do?”</p><p>She sighed, punching him in the gut for good measure, making him double over as she jogged towards Ichigo.</p><p>“You two make a violent couple, I hope you know that!” he shouted indignantly, clutching on his sore stomach and walked ahead to follow the two.</p><p>They patrolled the neighborhood for another hour or so, returning to their <em>gigai</em> when the sun began to set, in time for their return to the Kurosaki household. The previous incident involving Renji’s scent, and Ichigo’s subsequent odd behavior seemed forgotten, at least, for the time being.</p><p>Kurosaki Isshin greeted them, rather, he kicked open the door and pounced on an anticipating Ichigo, who punched the older man away. Same old interaction between both father and son, same old amusement as Renji and Rukia watched the two bickered as they went into the house, the fragrant smell of dinner already teasing at their hungering stomach.</p><p>The Kurosaki twins greeted them as they went in with the still bickering duo, offering them seats at the dinner table with no fuss. Yuzu gave them heaping plates of what looked like tonkatsu curry, still piping and ridiculously mouthwatering. “Here you go, Rukia-chan, Ren-chan!”</p><p>“Ren...<em>chan</em>?” he blinked, the little girl still cheerily smiling at him, somehow worryingly similar to Lieutenant Kusajishi from the Eleventh, even with the nicknames. He shook his head, food mattered more.</p><p>Sometimes he wondered what Ichigo’s family thought about the number of freeloaders frequenting their house every now and then, with only the excuse of being ‘Ichigo’s school friends’ backing them up. While Isshin was a shinigami through and through, the twins were still in the dark about most things, other than Karin who seemed to be somewhat perceptive about Ichigo’s ‘part-time job’. It was Yuzu that baffled Renji, as he peered from his plate to look at the cheerful girl chattering with Rukia and her sister, who was the most accepting of the circumstances as if it was what all normal human family did.</p><p>He was too distracted with boring holes at the girl and put a scalding hot spoonful of curry into his mouth.</p><p>“<em>Fuuu</em>—!” he yelped, blowing the heat out of his mouth and jumping noisily in his seat.</p><p>“Renji, are you okay?”</p><p>“Ren-chan is it too hot?!”</p><p>“Abarai-kun, here drink some water!”</p><p>Isshin gave him a glass of ice-cold water which he immediately gulped down in relief, Ichigo clambered from his seat and rounded the table to where he was in an instant along with Yuzu who got in-between his and Rukia’s seat to pat his back in a motherly fashion.</p><p>Karin and Rukia watched the scene in dumbfounded shock.</p><p>“Uh, guys,” Renji looked around nervously, Ichigo’s grip on the back of his seat and Yuzu’s concerned panic confused him, “I only burnt my tongue...”</p><p>The spell was broken the moment he said it. Yuzu blinked in puzzlement while Ichigo and Isshin shared the same concerning frown on their face.</p><p>“Abarai-kun, best finish your dinner quickly,” the older man said, his tone unusually serious. He got nothing to say to that, and only nodded dumbly—things had simply gotten weird that day.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>“What was that back there?”</p><p>“Hm?”</p><p>Renji glared at his orange-haired, giving him a pointed look as they crossed the street. Ichigo and he were on their way to Urahara’s, having left immediately after the awkwardly silent dinner ended. Rukia offered to go with them, but Yuzu and Karin held her back, the light-haired twin, in particular, was excited for the prospect of a sleepover with the older girl.</p><p>Isshin was whispering furiously with his son on their front porch, making him wait out on the gate while giving him suspicious looks from time to time. He thought he heard the words ‘beta’ and ‘safer’ in there somewhere, the topic itself odd. There were so little alphas in the Material World that the prospect of a secondary gender was never learned, everyone simply ignorant or knowing very little about alphas and betas, that the discussion seemed to never been brought up.</p><p>Granted, Isshin was a shinigami who only lived as a human by some chance. He was surprised that the older shinigami taught Ichigo about those things in the first place.</p><p>“It’s nothing, Renji, don’t worry about it,” Ichigo’s voice snapped him out of his reverie as they crossed the road. He didn’t buy it.</p><p>A car honked them down and they jogged quickly, Ichigo taking place on the side where the cars were coming. “Jeez, it’s still the fucking red light!”</p><p>“Didn’t take you for one shouting at cars,” the redhead chuckled in amusement, especially when the car owner who had his window down, cowered with the glare that the gangster-looking teen threw at him. Renji’s presence beside him was not helping.</p><p>“People need to chill with the horns,” the teenager grumbled defensively.</p><p>Urahara’s shop was located not too far from the clinic, but the area was less residential and more secluded, with more closed-up shops out of business than the bustling shopping center near Ichigo’s house. A fitting place to lay low for a former shinigami captain.</p><p>“What do you know about omegas?” the teenager asked out of the blue, the streets got narrower and the lights dimmer as they got closer to their destination.</p><p>“Omegas,” Renji repeated, “like the conspiracy theories?”</p><p>Ichigo paused, stopping Renji along. “Conspiracy?”</p><p>“Well, yeah... we talked about it often in our academy days, like it’s supposed to be the ‘forgotten’ third dynamic or something; it’s stupid, but didn’t know you got that here too.”</p><p>The younger was silent then, an ever-present frown on his already maturing face despite his age that got Renji the slightest hint of worry. “Come on, strawberry, Urahara’s close,” he dragged the teen along, ignoring how the other seemed to be lost in his thought.</p><p>“Ah, welcome back freeloader-san, and Kurosaki-san! I see Kuchiki-san is not going to be here tonight?”</p><p>Renji learned to ignore the insulting nickname and simply pushed past the infuriating shop owner with a ‘thanks’, already rummaging through the cabinets and fridges in the kitchen for some snacks even after just having dinner less than an hour ago.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m just making sure he got here all right,” Ichigo’s voice could be heard from the front door, the content of which made his eyebrow twitch.</p><p>“Oh, what a gentleman!” Urahara’s unnecessary comment only made him even more annoyed. He wasn’t some defenseless high school girl being escorted home by her boyfriend after her first date!</p><p>“Welcome back, freeloader-san!” Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta’s rowdy welcoming overshadowed his hearing of Ichigo’s request to talk to Urahara outside, distracting him from the two entirely. He smacked Jinta’s head when the boy tried to kick him, yet unable to escape Tessai’s crushing hug and Ururu’s limbs wounding all over his body.</p><p>“Can’t... <em>breathe,</em>” he wheezed, struggling to wriggle himself out of the deadlock they call a ‘hug’, all three body heats combined with his made his skin flush like an octopus.</p><p>“—on’t worry, Kurosaki-san, as you can see, he will be perfectly safe here,” Urahara’s amused voice drifted to his ears and he looked up from the tangled mess he was in to see the two were coming back inside.</p><p>“Yeah,” Ichigo snorted, “all right, Renji I’m gonna head back, okay? Be back here with Rukia tomorrow to send you off.”</p><p>“Fuck, get off you rascals!” the redhead pushed the two children off him, finally able to breathe, and said ‘OK’ distractedly at his friend to confirm that he heard.</p><p>“Be safe!” and the teenager was off.</p><p>
  <em>‘Safe’?</em>
</p><p>“Freeloader-san smells like cake,” Ururu’s small voice said shyly, sniffing close to him.</p><p>“Ah, it’s the milk pudding Ichigo’s sisters made for dessert,” he said, patting her head begrudgingly. Seemed like he wouldn’t be getting his snack for a while.</p><p>“Abarai-san come see me at my office, please,” Urahara called for him, his lilting accent almost too cheerful for Renji to not be suspicious. Tessai helped him get Ururu and Jinta off his back, offering them treats as if they were pets—surprisingly, it worked—and left him alone on the kitchen floor.</p><p>The blond shinigami was rummaging through cabinets and drawers behind his ‘office desk’ when Renji walked in, muttering to himself under his breath. Renji knocked on the open door out of courtesy, even though he knew the older man already sensed his <em>reiatsu</em> approaching. He wished he was that skilled at it, gods know his captain often berated him about his lack of training when it came to sniffing out different spiritual strings in his missions.</p><p>“Ah, please take a seat,” the blond offered, gesturing towards the lone plastic chair in front of his desk as he straightened up, a dark glass bottle in one hand.</p><p>“What is it?” he asked, not particularly about said bottle.</p><p>“This is a <em>reiatsu</em> dampener I’ve been working on,” the older shinigami offered, putting the medicinal-looking bottle on the desk as he took a seat on the opposite end, facing Renji. “I want you to give it a try, see if it works.”</p><p>“I’m not gonna be your lab rat!” Renji stood up, exclaiming indignantly. Urahara was fast, taking his arm in a surprisingly strong grip and holding him from escaping.</p><p>“Aah, but it’s only fair,” the blond said with a smile as if he wasn’t exerting any force keeping a struggling redheaded lieutenant in place, “since you’ve been <em>freeloading</em> here.”</p><p><em>Crap, that shit again</em>. He tried pushing it down, but the stupid guilt-tripping tactic always worked, preying on his passionate dislike of being in debt in any form.</p><p>“<em>Fine!</em>” he swiped the bottle from the other, who finally let him go, knowing he wouldn’t try to escape. “What is it, a pill? Syrup?” he grumbled, unscrewing the cap and scrutinizing the content. There were small pink tablets inside, looking almost like those chewy mint candies.</p><p>“Just take one, please. You can chew it if you like, it’s quite sweet!”</p><p>He threw a suffering look at the older man, popping one in his mouth, chewing once or twice—it was sweet as the man said, like candied strawberries—before swallowing it down.</p><p>“How long until—oh...” he trailed off, looking at his hands numbly, “that’s weird.”</p><p>More than his <em>reiatsu</em>, that had been indeed dampened close under his skin, it was the most indescribable feeling, like his entire presence was muffled even though he could clearly sense everything around him. Strange.</p><p>“That means it works, then,” the blond said decisively, a satisfied nod to himself. “You should still be able to use your powers, but the presence of your <em>reiatsu</em> is simply toned down, along with your, hm, physical traits like scent.”</p><p>“My ‘scent’?” he repeated, feeling incredulous. What was he, an animal? Though he admitted that he got used to the feeling after a while.</p><p>“A harmless side effect.” Urahara shrugged offhandedly, leaving it at that. Being Renji, he simply accepted the explanation without asking for further details—like how long it would last. The older shinigami ushered him away afterward, having no other use of the freeloader.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>Ichigo came with Rukia first thing the next morning, wearing his school uniform as he was also on his way to school. The boy exchanged strange looks with Urahara, the latter sending a cryptic nod before sending the teenager off, an entire scene that Renji briefly took note of.</p><p>He and Rukia said their goodbyes to the shop’s staff, no spending much time on frivolous chatters as they knew they would be back again sooner or later, being the most familiar with the Material World amongst the ranked officers in Soul Society, other than the other patrol officer Kurumadani, who mostly handled soul burials rather than fighting hollows.</p><p>The Senkaimon was opened, Hell butterflies at the ready, and the two were off. Rukia chattered about her sleepover last night, making wide motions with her hands childishly as she described the many Chappy sketches she drew for Yuzu and her overflowing excitement when Karin showed her a game that had mascots that looked exactly like her favorite imaginary bunny.</p><p>Renji, for his part, was half listening, and half trying to get his thoughts in order for his report to his captain. Rukia might have hers sorted out already, but he was an avid procrastinator, and only then arranging his report at the back of his head.</p><p>
  <em>Three hollows for the past seven days, twenty-seven soul burials and one Menos after an explosion in a restaurant taken care of alongside the substitute shinigami, no Pluses turning... I think that’s it. </em>
</p><p>“Hey, did we or did we not have a case of <em>Jibakurai (</em>earth-bound spirit) two days ago?” he asked, interrupting his friend in her epic rant about how her character in the game defeated a boss fight <em>epically</em>.</p><p>“We didn’t,” Rukia sniffed, annoyed at being cut off.</p><p>“But wasn’t there the one with the nursemaid...?”</p><p>“Renji, that was on the <em>last</em> mission!” the petite raven sighed in exasperation.</p><p>“Oh, right.”</p><p>She smirked teasingly. “Turning senile, old man?”</p><p>“Shuddup,” he pouted, elbowing her lightly on the shoulder.</p><p>They sped up their walk when they could finally see the light at the end of the dark tunnel of the Precipice World, eager to finish their mission properly. Once they exited through Seireitei’s Senkaimon, they were greeted by the same old stationary members of the Kido Corps manning the portal, which they gave their habitual polite bows to before splitting up to their respective divisions, agreeing to meet up later that night with the rest of their friends.</p><p>He took his time as he walked the streets of Seireitei, taking the longer route back to the barracks through the marketplace, perhaps catching on some new models of headgears from his favorite eyewear shop, that he knew he wouldn’t be able to afford anyway.</p><p>The sun was barely up in the sky, but the temperature had been steadily rising, the gentle breeze only slightly helping. He fanned himself with the wide collars of his <em>shihakusho</em> as he browsed through the trinkets put on display by the side of the roads, getting himself a plethora of new hairbands in various shades of red and on impulse—a pair of clip-on ear studs with some sort of small, imitation red gems on it. He suspected he wouldn’t be using it anytime soon, but he always thought them cool anyhow.</p><p>People were watching on the street, side-along glances and blatant stares, but he was used to it. His red hair was always eye-catching, not to mention the tattoos visible on his neck and forehead, having lost his white headband again for the third time that month. The number of smiles he was getting whenever he accidentally caught someone’s eyes, however, was disconcerting. It seemed that being a lieutenant of the famous Sixth Division was really equal to being a celebrity amongst these people.</p><p>He escaped the overly flattering scrutiny of the marketplace and into the military district easily with a flash-step, immediately running into one of his friends.</p><p>“Kira!” he waved an arm out, jogging to approach the gaunt young man who seemed to be in the middle of an errand, judging by the thick package in his arm with the Third Division seal on it.</p><p>“Abarai-kun, you’re back,” the thin blond greeted, a small smile in his face.</p><p>“Captain Otoribashi driving you nuts yet?” he teased, slinging an arm around his friend’s shoulder as they walked. Kira tensed up unexpectedly, and he withdrew, stepping back to look at the thinner shinigami strangely.</p><p>“What’s wrong?”</p><p>“O-oh, it’s nothing,” the blond waved his hand dismissively, clearing his throat, “and no, Captain is not as ‘eccentric’ as he let on, you know. He’s a very capable man.”</p><p>“Secret admirer much?” he wiggled his brows, to which Kira sputtered in embarrassment, vehemently denying the accusation. He laughed out loud, amused at the frantic shinigami before slapping him on the back in amiable jest.</p><p>“Abarai-kun, did you perhaps, um,” the blond paused, choosing his words carefully, “eat or drink something from the Urahara’s Shop while you were there?”</p><p>Renji stopped in his tracks. “...how did you know?”</p><p>“You did? Oh, well—”</p><p>“Yeah that hat-and-clogs bastard made me drink some <em>reiatsu</em> dampening pills or something—well one, technically—but he guilt-tripped me because I was ‘freeloading’ in his place!” he ranted, cutting the other shinigami from his next sentence.</p><p>“—and he said that it would dampen my ‘scent’ too? What am I, an animal? Wait does that mean it’s still working until now if you can notice it? But isn’t the point of the dampener for me to be unnoticeable? Then again, I guess you <em>would</em> notice my <em>reiatsu</em> being unnoticeable because I’m here and you can’t feel it, is that why you froze up earlier? I—”</p><p>“Abarai-kun, please slow down!” Kira’s exclamation shut him up and he blinked several times, surprised to hear the blond raising his voice.</p><p>“Oh, sorry, I guess I ranted at you, huh?” the redhead admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.</p><p>“So you said something about your ‘scent’?”</p><p>Renji nodded, a frown already strong on his face. “Yeah, Urahara said it’s a side effect from the pill, it makes my ‘scent’, whatever the hell that means, unnoticeable too? I honestly didn’t think it would last this long.”</p><p>It was the blond’s turn to frown, muttering to himself. “That is strange. Because I thought your scent is—”</p><p>“Ah, that’s the Sixth barracks,” the taller lieutenant perked when he saw the compound up ahead, snapping Kira out of his musings.</p><p>“Sorry Kira, I gotta go,” the redhead said to the other shinigami, “we’ll talk more later. Tell the others we’ll go grab some drinks at the <em>izakaya</em> tonight if you see them?” He left before the blond managed to form a reply, already running ahead.</p><p>Kira watched in dazed reverie, the wind carrying the redhead’s presence into his nose.</p><p>“...it’s sweet.”<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>The squad flocked around him in his return, welcoming him back enthusiastically and asking of his time in the Material World. He took his time to interact with the recruits, especially the new, aspiring ones who still had the sparkling optimism in their eyes—eager to learn, eager to please. Even though it was a simple, almost routine mission, the awe in their voices and expression never ceased to amaze him.</p><p>Several seated officers saw him, offering their greetings and polite bows before being on their way, more reserved than the unseated officers and members. He finally had to excuse himself, knowing delaying his report any more would be unwise even for him, and got himself out of their sticky fingers.</p><p>“Renji-san, welcome back!” the voice of his young follower caught his attention, and Yuki Rikichi’s figure was seen at the end of the hallway, carrying stacks of paperwork too big for his stature.</p><p>“Rikichi,” he called, sauntering towards the young lad, “need some help with that?”</p><p>“Oh, please no, I can handle it,” the younger shinigami grinned proudly, puffing his chest.</p><p>Renji chuckled, ruffling the younger’s hair to his dismay, and asked, “the captain around?”</p><p>“Yes, he's arrived at the office since two hours ago.”</p><p>Muttering ‘workaholic’ under his breath, the lieutenant parted with the unseated officer and walked purposefully to his and his captain’s shared office room.</p><p>
  <em>Three hollows, twenty-seven burials, one menos. Three hollows, twenty-seven burials, one menos... twenty-seven? Was it twenty-eight? No, twenty-seven soul burials, one menos—ah, I’m here. </em>
</p><p>He knocked on the wooden door to the large office, announcing his entrance despite sharing the same space, and entered the room.</p><p>Cloying musk attacked his senses and he exhaled sharply, feeling the heat in his body rising. His nose got used to the heady scent after a while, a strange sensation tickling his lower regions. The more he entered, the stronger it became, and he felt a throbbing on his neck, which he instinctively fingered—it felt raw. <em>What is this?</em></p><p>“Lieutenant Abarai, I see you have returned,” his captain’s deep baritone drifted to his ears, his head going fuzzy, as if walking through a fog in the clear room. His captain was seated on his large desk, as usual, scanning through the paperwork in his hand, looking like he didn’t notice whatever ominous fog was currently invading the space. <em>Is it just me?</em></p><p>The man’s presence was powerful, and Renji got severely reminded that all this time, he was working under a <em>pureblooded Alpha, </em>with a capital A to emphasize the sheer importance of the noble’s secondary gender. He never thought much about it, the status of his below commoner background already a deep wound in their difference. Being a beta like most others in Soul Society was always a non-issue. But now... it felt like the noble’s presence increased tenfold.</p><p>“Captain Kuchiki, I’m here to give you my verbal r-report on the mission before writing down the written log, sir,” he managed to say with barely contained struggle, wanting nothing but to lay down on his comfortable bed and shed himself of all the sweltering garments.</p><p>The older man looked up, his slate grey orbs looking sharper than they usually did, and he felt the throbbing on his neck grew stronger. The man seemed to be waiting for him to go ahead with his report.</p><p>“T-there were two—no I mean, three hollows I, <em>we</em>, Kuchiki Rukia and I, exterminated along with, um, the substitute shinigami,” he cursed himself deeply that he wished he would simply fall into the abyss. He never struggled like this before. It was like the noble’s gaze was holding him captive, his nerves set on fire, rendering his speech useless.</p><p>“And in that span of time, we did sevente—<em>twenty-seven</em> soul burials along with one Menos Grande appearance in the same location. What I mean is, there was a menos <em>because </em>the restaurant exploded and the twenty-seven souls—<em>fuck</em>.”</p><p>His eyes widened, realizing what he just did.</p><p>The captain’s face was impassive, his eyes darkening as they narrowed to slits.</p><p>“Quite disappointing, Abarai,” Kuchiki Byakuya commented, standing up from his seat.</p><p>Renji gulped, fighting the urge to take a step back as his captain stalked closer, akin to a predator in his mind than anything else. Despite being the taller of the two, the raven seemed to loom over him, and he finally had no choice but to retreat until his back hit against the door. He only wished this situation was a bad dream more than anything else, too surreal to be true.</p><p>“You wish not to tell me about your change in scent, then?”</p><p>The inquiry brought his panicking mind to a halting stop.</p><p>“My... scent?”</p><p>Kira’s random questions crossed his mind, suddenly realizing that perhaps the ‘dampener’ had lost their effects, and that may have been why the blond said what he said. But the confusion remained, and he was reminded of Ichigo in the abandoned park yesterday, and Ururu’s innocent comment, that perhaps it was more than his shampoo or the milk pudding—and his captain’s hot breath was attacking his feverish skin.</p><p>The raven was close, way too close for comfort—the closest he had ever been, even more so than when they were fighting against each other before. The headiness of the cloying musk attacked his senses, cementing his belief that it came from the raven. His captain’s height was convenient enough for him to simply lean forward to take a deep breath of Renji by the crook of his neck, the one that had been severely throbbing to his puzzlement.</p><p>A long finger swiped at the area, making his breath hitched as he let off a full-body shudder to his embarrassment, surprised at how sensitive it had become. He didn’t realize he had his eyes tightly shut until he opened them, only to look at the noble scrutinizing his own finger, a sheen of <em>something</em> on the pad of the digit that had touched his skin.</p><p>He opened his mouth, “Captain Kuchiki, what—”</p><p>A tongue.</p><p>A tongue was lapping at his neck. Kuchiki Byakuya’s tongue. <em>His captain. </em></p><p>A long nose pressed against his skin, the hot mouth grazing him as the very wet, very hot appendage dragged languidly across the side of his neck. The surface was rough, like that of a cat’s, and it scraped his skin, tenderizing the flesh, <em>preparing</em> him.</p><p>He stifled an embarrassing sigh, his hands were at the ready to push the other away, despite how groggy he was feeling. But before he could even react, retaliate, or <em>fight back</em>, a sharp stinging pain exploded from his neck throughout the entirety of his body.</p><p>Kuchiki Byakuya was biting him.</p><p>"Capta—!" His eyes got impossibly wide, before they fluttered, struggling to remain open. His whole body turning into jelly, succumbing to the shock and almost bittersweet pain of being claimed by an alpha out of the blue.</p><p>His consciousness flickered away.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I love ByaRen and so do you. If you want, you can join <a href="https://discord.gg/bbhBVga">The Seireitei</a> Discord server and proliferate the ship amongst the multitude of like-minded trashy shippers (like me!) in the server XD</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Don't always expect this kind of speedy updates, this is only because I was so extremely motivated xD</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He groaned, scrunching his face as headache throbbed in his skull. His hands searching around, finding the soft material under him. His futon? He opened his eyes and sure enough, he was back in his room at the barracks. There were no lights coming from the outside, a flickering lantern by the door.</p><p>“Renji, you lazy buffoon,” a female’s loud voice was heard muffled from outside his room before the <em>shoji</em> was unceremoniously slammed open, revealing an annoyed-looking Kuchiki Rukia. He blinked at her owlishly, confused, as he tried to sit up.</p><p>“Huh?” he said eloquently.</p><p>The girl bristled as she invited herself into the room without preamble and knocked on his head with her small fist. He fell down without much help, another long groan as he clutched at his still throbbing head.</p><p>“You were supposed to meet me outside your division’s gate after work, you made me wait for half an hour until I saw nii-sama walked out!” she grumbled, but knelt down in worry and took in his condition.<br/><br/>“You alright?”</p><p>“M’ fine,” he mumbled, massaging his temples, “forgot about the time. I was—wait.”</p><p>He sat up abruptly, imaginary headache gone and frown deepening. “Wasn’t I reporting about the mission...” he trailed off, muttering to himself.</p><p>The last thing he remembered was walking into his office, the embarrassingly pathetic report he was giving to his captain. But that was because of the haze and—</p><p>His captain bit him.</p><p><em>Kuchiki Byakuya bit me</em>...?</p><p>“You don’t remember, do you?” Rukia suddenly said, and he looked at her as if she held all the answers. What did he not know?</p><p>“You were excused from work after nii-sama saw that you looked terrible, remember? He told you to rest up for the rest of the day and come back to give him your report tomorrow instead. Honestly,” the small raven shook her head, “you were just fine before. Be grateful my nii-sama is a generous captain, you pineapple.”</p><p>Oh.</p><p>So it was... a dream?</p><p>It felt so <em>real</em>.</p><p>“Wait, how did you know all that?” he said accusingly.</p><p>She let out an exasperated sigh. “Because unlike most people, I actually <em>talk </em>to nii-sama whenever I see him,” the raven said with a raised brow, and proceeded to pull on his arms, “now come on, the others are waiting already.”</p><p>He slapped her hands away with a ‘yeah, yeah’ and got himself up, all the while complaining to himself, distracted from his confusing dreams.</p><p>He looked down at his crumpled <em>shihakusho </em>and suspected that the ‘crumpliness’ extended beyond his outfit. “Can’t I at least wash—”</p><p>“You look <em>fine</em>,” she pressed and dragged him out of his room.</p><p>When he got out of his room, he could see that he really slept the whole day away, from the moon up high on the night sky, and the deserted training grounds with no hint of other shinigami around.</p><p>His stomach rumbled, much to his chagrin, and his friend snorted out an undignified laugh for someone coming from a noble family.</p><p>“I haven’t got anything since morning, alright?” Renji curled his mouth, rubbing at his empty stomach. He was reminded of the delicious tonkatsu curry that Ichigo’s little sister made yesterday, making him sigh ruefully, hastening his steps.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p>When they arrived, the <em>izakaya </em>was already filled with many people, mostly shinigami winding down after a long day of work. The pair spotted their group of friends already lounging around a reserved partition, cups of sake in hands, and a plethora of snacks already half-way finished.</p><p>“They already started without us?” he inhaled indignantly, about to give the perpetrator a piece of his mind—knowing exactly that it was Matsumoto Rangiku, too impatient with her passion for alcohol.</p><p>“Because you <em>slept </em>like a log, idiot,” Rukia elbowed him. The other lieutenants’ conversation drifted to their ears as they got closer.</p><p>“—kept in underground dungeons and treated like some sort of barn animals.”</p><p>“Oh please, Shuuhei, you read too many mystery novels,” Matsumoto’s dismissively said, chugging down her sake and about to raise her hand for another when she spotted Renji and Rukia walking their way.</p><p>“Yoo-hoo, Rukia-chan and Renji~” the strawberry blonde waved her arm cheerily. Kira Izuru and Hisagi Shuuhei turned their heads, giving the two a simple nod.</p><p>“Sorry to crash the party,” the redhead said sarcastically, earning himself some sheepish excuses before climbing the raised tatami and took his seat beside Hisagi, Rukia sitting beside Matsumoto gingerly. She was still wary of the older woman, given her tendencies for suddenly pouncing people.</p><p>“What were you talking about?”</p><p>The blonde rolled her eyes. “Oh, Shuuhei-kun over here is just telling us of his conspiracy theory about the infamous group of ‘omegas’ kept in some dungeons by the noble families.”</p><p>“It is certainly interesting,” Kira quipped unhelpfully. He looked at Renji for a moment, pursed his lips, but said nothing.</p><p>“It’s not a ‘conspiracy theory’, Rangiku-san, I was speculating based on the knowledge we have so far.”</p><p>“That’s called a conspiracy, Shuuhei-<em>kun-sama</em>,” Matsumoto patted the man’s spiky head like a parent would when they were trying to reassure their child and hollered at a passing waitress for another round of sake.</p><p>“Ah, shochu for me!” Renji called.</p><p>“You said you were hungry,” Rukia exclaimed.</p><p>He gave her a side-along glance, a pout on his lips, “I want alcohol with my meal,” he told her pointedly before listing off several snack choices like yakitori and agedashi tofu to the waitress.</p><p>“Why were you talking about the ‘omegas’?” he asked after the waitress left, taking a piece of karaage on the platter already ordered by the group before.</p><p>“Kira was telling us about his plight with his sensitivity to scents recently, and somehow Shuuhei over here managed to tie it together with his theories about omegas and their special scent properties, and it kind of just branched off from there,” Matsumoto explained patiently, making air quotations at the end.</p><p>“Why else would his sense of smell be in jeopardy?” Hisagi argued.</p><p>“Alpha hormones?” Rukia quipped, earning withering glares from the others to her dismay.</p><p>Kira watched the redhead’s growing confusion at the topic and volunteered to explain his side of the story.</p><p>“Remember earlier today when you told me about the ‘pills’ Urahara Kisuke urged you to take, Abarai-kun? The one he said to have scent dampening side-effect?” at Renji’s nod, he continued, “well I was suspicious because you seemed to think I couldn’t smell anything on you, when I could...”</p><p>The group was quiet, anticipation growing at the revelation. Renji, for his part, was taken aback, suddenly reminded of the thoughts he had in his supposed ‘dream’ about... Just the thought alone made him want to hide his face in shame.</p><p>“It was a very sweet scent, quite different from your usual scent,” the blond shrugged, scratching on his chin, “but I can’t smell anything of the sort anymore, so I think it’s simply a coincidence, after all. You know, since the alpha blood in me is partly overridden by my beta heritage...”</p><p>“Kira,” Hisagi drawled, “you didn’t tell me that it was Abarai’s scent.”</p><p>Kira shook his head frantically. “Oh, no, because I didn’t want to assume! So now we know it’s not Abarai-kun, it’s just,” he finished lamely, looking at Rukia “hormones?”</p><p>The others looked at him with raised brows, but quickly lost interest in the topic when the drinks and Renji’s snacks arrived, the redheaded lieutenant’s growling stomach the main cue for himself to stop talking and start eating.</p><p>The establishment got rowdier as the night grew on, the bar section getting filled with officers working overtime or waiting for their late shifts to start.  A soft tune of shamisen strings being plucked drifted across the area, signaling the band to start playing, with the flute and <em>koto</em> following next.</p><p>The group of lieutenants ate their fill languidly, taking their time despite having to go to work the next morning, a drink each in hand as they talked about nothing and everything in their everyday life, from the mundane to the absurd.</p><p>“—and Renji looked like he was about to pummel Ichigo to next Tuesday when he started to sniff him like a dog,” Rukia snickered into her cup, shaking her head at the memory.</p><p>“Oh come on, just admit you wanna be in my position.”</p><p>The small raven sputtered, swallowing a large gulp of sake dry, and coughed uncontrollably. She pounded on her own chest, grabbing for the nearest glass of water.</p><p>“That was uncalled for, Renji,” Matsumoto giggled, tipping her however-many-number of sake down her throat.</p><p>Kira nodded sagely, stroking on his imaginary beard. “Quite right, Matsumoto-san,” he said, turning to face Renji with that stupidly flushed face of his, “Abarai-kun, you should know that women secretly like being sniffed by the man, or woman, they like. It’s bad to gloat about it in Kuchiki-san’s face when you know she likes Kurosaki-kun—<em>ow</em>!”</p><p>Two sets of fists landed on his head, one from Matsumoto, and another from the recently recovered Rukia. Hisagi sniggered at the younger’s expression while Renji blinked slowly.</p><p>It took all of that for one of them to realize they were all drunk.</p><p>“We should be getting back,” Rukia suggested drowsily as she slumped down next to Matsumoto, the closest she had ever been to the blonde on her own free will. The others’ nods and mumbles of agreement filled their space, standing up with the bill already placed on their table.</p><p>Renji groped his uniform sleeve for a small money pouch, chipping in his part of the bill along with the others. Kira volunteered to pay the cashier, leaving the four others to wait out for him. Before they could leave the establishment, however, a single person caught their eyes entering the <em>izakaya</em>.</p><p>Kyoraku Shunsui’s intimidating figure, in his eye-catching pink outer kimono, ducked through the door, an arm pushing the flaps at the entrance out of his charismatic face.</p><p>“Captain Kyoraku,” they bowed awkwardly in their drunken state, at least sober enough to extend politeness to the captain of the Eight Division, who smiled easily as he approached them.</p><p>Renji’s breathing stuttered as the man walked close, aware of the alpha pheromone along with unnaturally dense <em>reiatsu </em>that could only belong to a captain of such a high caliber suddenly entering the vicinity, much like everyone else in the building. The man seemed to be making a beeline towards him, with how his warm eyes focusing on his person.</p><p>“Such a shame that you are already leaving,” the older captain commented to the group, though his eyes never leaving Renji’s own.</p><p>Kyoraku seemed to notice the lack of sobriety on their part, took the opportunity to inch closer to Renji, scrutinizing the lieutenant as he ducked down to catch a deep breath on the area around the redhead’s neck. A familiar full-body shudder emerged from under his skin, and he stifled a gasp when the pointed tip of an aquiline nose grazed the exposed skin of his neck, where his tattoos were visible.</p><p>All of this was done in the public setting, everyone watched them in confusion and shock, though the group Renji was with only looked on in drunken awe.</p><p>“I see that he made a quick work on you,” the captain murmured to himself as he drew away, a smile on his voice that was indiscernible by the others, let alone Renji’s buzzing head. Instead, the redhaired shinigami looked at the taller captain in puzzlement, earning him an amused laugh and a pat on his head much like a child, breaking the silence before they parted ways, leaving the group to walk dazedly to the exit, waiting for Kira to be done with the cashier.</p><p>“He sniffed you,” Matsumoto commented on the obvious, her glazed eyes looking at Renji in wonder.</p><p>“He did,” Hisagi agreed, and Rukia nodded dumbly.</p><p>The redheaded lieutenant frowned, pursing his lips and readying an argument when Kira stumbled out of the building. He looked around at his friends, his nose twitching. “I smelled Captain Kyoraku in there,” he said softly, “and here.”</p><p>He looked at the redhead expectantly, his nose coming in close to Renji’s person. The taller lieutenant shoved the blond before he could get any closer, “he was sniff’n me,” he grumbled with a loose tongue and trudged ahead, not wanting to hear the stupid comments his friends ought to make. The gossips he knew he would hear tomorrow by onlookers were already giving him a premature headache.</p><p>He cursed the eccentric captain for his eccentric behavior.</p><p>And what was up with people constantly sniffing him?</p><p> </p><hr/><p>He fell down to his futon the moment he entered his quarters, knowing he should probably wash up first and change out of his dirty clothes before dozing off. Instead, his eyes drifted shut, the talks of omegas with his friends and Captain Kyoraku’s comment the last thing swimming on his mind as he was swept away to his dreams. </p><p>
  <em>The heat returned, lighting his core on fire almost too sensuous to be true. His skin was feverish, every gust of wind, every bead of sweat felt like a thousand caress of a lover.</em>
</p><p><em>A pair of arms wrapped across his front, bringing his back to press flushed against a sturdy chest, warm and heated and blazing </em>hot<em>. A voice whispered to his ear, too quiet, his mind too muddled to understand what they were saying. The hands shifted, trails of fire across his skin. The cloying pheromones suffocate him, drowning him in uncontrollable lust and succumbing to his most basic instincts.</em></p><p>
  <em>He was bare as the day he was born, and the pair of arms suddenly turned into two, and three, and more as mouths grazed across his neck, touching his lips sweetly, and he was made to endure every single bit of wanton desire. Warm fingers teased at his chest, curling around his shoulders and gliding down his spine. He arched his back, letting out a muted moan into the lips sealing his shut, hands fondling his bottom, and touching his lusting flesh. </em>
</p><p><em>Long fingers slid, up and down, up and down, circling, before slipping inside him, slick with something that came from </em>within<em> and he keened. The sensation new and </em>not enough<em>, his body empty even though he was being filled. A mouth returned to his neck, the flesh throbbing and raw, thick with his scent. </em></p><p><em>And then a tongue was lapping at his neck, the surface rough like that of a cat’s, and it scraped his skin as if tenderizing his flesh, </em>preparing <em>him.</em></p><p>
  <em>A sharp stinging pain exploded from his neck throughout the entirety of his body. </em>
</p><p>He was jolted awake, drenched in his own sweat, breathing harshly through his pale lips. He looked at the state of his body, his clothing thoroughly rumpled and damp, and when he fingered the edges of his hakama, there was a wet patch on it. Shame coursed through his skin, and he groaned, hiding his face in his hands.</p><p><em>What the hell was that?</em> he thought to himself, the scenes of the dream fresh in his mind, yet slowly ebbing away, leaving lingering sensations behind.</p><p>His hand moved to scratch at his neck habitually but hissed when he found it sore and stinging to the touch. Dread trickled and he scrambled to where he kept a small mirror with the rest of his accessories, tugging at the collar of his kimono harshly.</p><p>A full bitemark at the joint between his shoulder and neck greeted him, further enough from exposed skin to be hidden underneath his collar. His eyes were blown wide as he fingered around the edge of the mark, angry red where canines dug deep, a hint of scab forming around tiny open wounds. How could he not feel it, he wondered, when it was so blatantly obvious and <em>painful</em> to even graze.</p><p>
  <em>He really did bite me... it wasn’t a dream. He lied to Rukia. </em>
</p><p>Captain Kyoraku’s words popped at the front of his head. ‘He made a quick work on you’, he said.</p><p>Only an alpha could sense the mark of another.</p><p>He gritted his teeth, rage and betrayal waved tumultuously in his heart as he tugged on his collar furiously, standing up and running out of his room without preamble—a destination in mind.  </p><p> </p><hr/><p>When he arrived, his captain was waiting for him.</p><p>Finding his calm <em>reiatsu</em> was easy enough, the raven not exactly hiding it—he was expecting Renji. There weren’t even guards at the gates of the manor, where he usually found at least two manning the entrance. The sun was barely rising, only the sliver of its light visible on the horizon.</p><p>Kuchiki Byakuya could sense his lieutenant coming the minute his rambunctious <em>reiatsu</em> was within several hundred feet from the manor’s grounds. The hand holding his cup of cooling tea tighten, a growl threatening to rumble when he sensed <em>another alpha’s </em>scent on him, and something more carnal.</p><p>The state of his lieutenant as he slammed the shoji to his personal rooms open was even more jarring. His shihakusho was thoroughly disheveled, the edges of his bite mark visible through the collar, and the scent of his arousal palpable through his clothing. More than that, the pheromone of Kyoraku Shunsui was nigh upon the mark he put there earlier that day.</p><p>“You bit me,” the lieutenant grounded, stepping into the room cautiously despite his blazing eyes. Byakuya was exuding his pheromone constantly, hoping to confront the other without having the matter escalated into a fight—though he had Ukitake Juushiro made Rukia, one way or another, stay in her barracks’ quarters that night, just in case things get rowdy. </p><p>“There is more to the matter than—”</p><p>“Don’t fucking make excuses with me!” Renji roared, lunging forward and grabbed the Kuchiki by his collar, his <em>reiatsu</em> flared, rattling the wooden screens.</p><p>Kuchiki Byakuya was <em>not</em> to be interrupted.</p><p>White energy exploded throughout the room, destroying the <em>fusuma</em> and shoji screens, cracking the beams that supported the roof and slamming his lieutenant’s body several feet with its force. His alpha instinct screamed at him to subdue the fallen redhead, show him his place, and make him <em>submit</em>.</p><p>But the bronze eyes gleamed <em>red</em>, a beastly snarl on ferocious face fitting of an alpha.</p><p>“You don’t get to throw me around just because I’m a lowly fucking beta and you’re a motherfucking alpha!” Renji shouted so loudly, that his voice cracked. He leaped, quick as lightning, throwing a punch to the raven that was caught single-handedly, with the force which created gusts of wind inside the bare room.</p><p>Byakuya looked down at the wild beast caught in his hand, and with a cold voice said, “calm down, Abarai, you are letting you animal instincts control you.”</p><p>And indeed, he was.  Just as the raven finished his sentence, Renji swung a fist to his face that he failed to deflect, throwing the noble to crash through the fusuma dividers and into another room. He flexed his hands, hot fumes from his flaring nose as he walked towards where his captain was knocked to.</p><p>“Howl, Zabimaru.” His zanpakuto flashed red, turning into his infamous segmented, whip-like blades the size of his body. Would he regret using shikai in the Kuchiki’s property? Probably. Was it going too far?</p><p><em>Hell no</em>. In his mind, Kuchiki Byakuya had ruined his entire future when he put a claiming mark on him.</p><p>He swung the blade like the whip it was meant to be, the segments stretching out to nail his captain who was just standing up in the other room. The raven barely managed to block it with his sealed blade, and jumping out of the way once, twice, until Renji had to retract the blades for another strike.  </p><p>That was when he lunged.</p><p>In a single, fluid movement, he hooked his zanpakuto to one of the blade segments on the redhead’s clumsy counter and hiked it up in the air, pushing them both backward until the other slammed against the wall, as his other hand gripped on Abarai’s hands that were clutching the hilt of Zabimaru.</p><p>“Let go,” the taller shinigami growled, jerking his hands away but to no avail—Kuchiki Byakuya’s lean physique belied his enormous strength.</p><p>“Stand down, Abarai,” Byakuya hissed, sending off his pheromones more, making the other buckled shortly, but stubbornly keeping his paces. “You cannot win this.”</p><p>The beast inside Renji whimpered at the litany of alpha pheromones drowning him, urging him to back down and submit to the dominant one. His blood curdled and he felt the heat within him rising, that he chose to ignore, even when his neck started to throb uncontrollably, the mark calling. </p><p>“<em>Watch me</em>,” he growled out instead, his Bankai release command balanced at the tip of his tongue.</p><p>Byakuya’s eyes widened, realizing what his uncontrollable lieutenant was about to do to their surroundings—to <em>his</em> estate.</p><p>Renji opened his lips, but all that came out was a pained howl. Zabimaru cluttered out of his hands heavily as he sucked in a deep breath, his wrists nearly crushed by the pressure of the lone hand gripping them, that he could feel the bones fracture.</p><p>He was slammed to the ground on his front, a substantial weight atop him with his arms held on his back as his chin hit the tatami with an awful groan. He immediately struggled once again, trying to elbow the additional weight off his back, only to freeze when a mouth hovered dangerously close to his neck, the side with the throbbing mark.</p><p>“Will you cease your destructive imprudence, Lieutenant?” a gravelly voice, raw with exertion from his struggle, breathed to his ear roughly. He growled at the patronizing remark, hissing like a cornered cat, and bucked his body even more, if only to irritate the noble—and succeeded.</p><p>However, it was not to his victory—not in the slightest. Kuchiki Byakuya’s <em>reiatsu</em> grew thick around them, enveloping his own, and his body completely, along with the strong surge of the alpha pheromone making him squirm in place. He felt the pure energy ran up and down his spine, caressing, searching for entry to his soul. He let out an involuntary moan as his body was heating up from inside-out, tightening his legs when something wet slid down his bottom, something that came from <em>within</em>, obscene and entirely alien to him.</p><p>His beast purred, and he could only watch in horror from inside his mind, as his own body gave up on him, betraying him, and growing slack under the alpha’s influence.</p><p>“I see that your omega instinct finally takes action.”</p><p>
  <em>Omega...?</em>
</p><p>“What do you mean?” he whispered breathlessly, thinking that he must have misheard.</p><p>“If I promise to explain to you,” his captain murmured, “will you not resort to violence as I release your person?”</p><p>He swallowed down his petulant remark, all rage wiped away, and curiosity took place despite his continued distrust for the noble. He nodded.</p><p>He was promptly let go, and he sat up, fixing the raven-haired shinigami with a glare as he rubbed on his sore wrists. They would heal, but he wouldn’t be able to train with swords for a while—let alone fight. The noble had the decency to look apologetic, at least.</p><p>“I can heal it,” he offered, only met with silence and the sharp gaze filled with animosity. He deserved it.</p><p>The cold wind blew from the destroyed screens leading to the dimly lit garden right outside of Byakuya’s rooms, and for a moment, he took in their surroundings, noting the state of all the shoji and fusuma, and the wooden beams precariously supporting the roof up top.</p><p>“If you don’t start explaining yourself, <em>captain</em>, starting from <em>this,</em>” Renji started, his voice rumbled from his chest in loosely lidded impatience as he pointed at his neck, “I will blow this entire area to smithereens.”</p><p>The opposing tone made his alpha instinct flare, his own beast pacing within him dangerously at the audacity of one it deemed should submit to its will.</p><p>“You will find, Abarai,” he began calmly, his eyes dark with veiled danger, “the significance of that mark is not as severe as you think.”</p><p>“Oh?” a derisive snort, made to be filled with disdainful sarcasm, “so a claiming mark is <em>not </em>severe? You didn’t just put your mark of possession on me, <em>ruining my life by bounding me to yourself forcefully</em>?” the redhead’s tone got increasingly higher as hysterics caught up to him.</p><p>He didn’t realize he was flailing his arms violently until the noble swept close, catching his flying fists with both hands, and looked at him in the eye.</p><p>“It is only a claiming mark,” Byakuya said lowly, so close that he could see the golden specks of the redhead’s orbs, “when I <em>mate </em>you,” he whispered to a heated ear, earning himself a strong quiver, “when I <em>claim</em> your body,” a strong wave of pheromones crashing down the increasingly pliant body, “and <em>knot</em> you until you are thoroughly filled with my essence.”</p><p>Glazed eyes stared back at him before they regained clarity, and pushed him away, scrambling back in panic. </p><p>His mouth trembled, fear took over as he hugged himself, attempting to make himself as small as possible. <br/><br/>“What is happening to me?” the lieutenant said hysterically to himself, unable to believe how strongly he reacted to an alpha when he never even batted an eyelash before. he should have felt relief at the explanation that was given, despite how it was executed, but all he found was mounting fear amidst his confusion, vulnerability at the forefront. He didn't want to be made weak in front of any alphas, let alone the one he strived to surpass. </p><p>“It is only natural,” Byakuya said slowly as he sat back to a <em>seiza</em>, “because you are an omega.” A pin-drop silence, then—</p><p>“Omegas aren’t real,” the lieutenant hissed, quickly denying the statement. </p><p>“They are,” the raven countered. </p><p>“I don’t believe you.”</p><p>The Kuchiki sighed, the first time Renji ever heard him, and it made him look at the other strangely. </p><p>“Omegas are prized, for they are rare and invaluable, their wombs potent enough to birth purebred alphas once mated with one. You can see, how the nobilities would keep them under their clutches. Yet unlike alphas, the birth of an omega cannot be predicted as to when and where, unbound by bloodlines, and each one treasured for the many that went unnoticed, the many that died off without ever being discovered in the fringes of the many districts in Soul Society,” the noble narrated slowly, each word emphasized to make sure Abarai understood him, and each word, he could see the disbelief and awe in the redhaired shinigami’s expression.</p><p>The revelation, the sheer surrealism of the story was too much for him to grasp. ‘Wombs’, as in for all omegas, suppose they were indeed, real? Were the conspiracy theories people spouted off constantly held truth? Did that mean he also... he unconsciously fingered the area below his navel, the action of which Byakuya took notice.</p><p>“How do I know you’re not lying to me? All I know of this are the stories from conspiracy nuts in the academy,” he snapped.</p><p>“My late wife, Hisana, was an omega.”</p><p>It left his mouth ajar, his expression frozen.</p><p>There was no way that Kuchiki Byakuya would use his beloved late wife for a lie, no possible way that he would desecrate her name to convince Renji of a pretend story. <br/><br/>Too many times he saw his captain gaze off longingly to his window, the times he saw the man stood by the cherry blossom trees, smiling as if he was talking to her. He loved her <em>too much</em>, to do such a thing. He had no rebuttal, and he was left with a helpless acceptance.</p><p>“Why did you bite me?” he asked finally, tumultuous energy leaving his body.</p><p>“To ward off against other alphas,” the raven murmured, unusually gentle, “those who might claim you by force. It will fade away in time, enough so that I could find you a more suitable dampener to conceal your status, rather than Urahara Kisuke’s obsolete concoction.”</p><p>Renji snapped his head up, “you knew?”</p><p>“He contacted me as soon as you left the Material World.”</p><p>“Why didn’t you tell me then?”</p><p>“There is a saying that walls have ears. It is better to convey to you my explanation within the Kuchiki compound.”</p><p>Byakuya waited patiently as his lieutenant tried to sort his thoughts, many questions floating in his head, but he found it difficult to reach for one to ask.</p><p>“Captain Kyoraku,” he said suddenly, to Byakuya’s ire, “he knew. He sniffed me and said that you 'did a quick work' on me.”</p><p>There was a hint of a snarl in his captain’s mouth, his nose flared, and he realized it was his alpha’s inexplicable possessiveness that reacted. He didn’t know what to feel about it.</p><p>“He always has a keen nose, he might smell your scent gland under the mark I put on you,” the noble supplied sullenly, his fists tight as to not lunge forward and mark the omega only a few feet away in front of him, copiously, until he was drenched in nothing but his scent alone. He ofttimes feared his inner beast, at how carnal and primitive it could be, especially with the utterly brazen and feisty omega that was his lieutenant, knowing that the younger’s body was more than ready <em>for him</em>.</p><p>Renji shuddered as another wave of pheromone washed over him, his body tingling and lit with fire. His curiosity won over, and he asked yet another question. “Ichigo knew too, I think. And his dad, Isshin... with how weird they acted last night,” he muttered, and blinked as he was reminded of something, “and Ururu, one of Urahara’s staff, she commented on my scent.”</p><p>“Shiba Isshin used to be the head of the Shiba Clan, a prominent family of equal standing to the Four Noble Houses before their subsequent demise. He is, by all understanding, a pureblooded alpha. It is not a surprise that Kurosaki Ichigo,” the name was said in displeasure, “has alpha blood, though perhaps not yet matured. As for the shop assistant, there are records of betas having heightened senses, due to some parts of their blood belonging that to a descendant of alphas.”</p><p>Renji nodded at the answer, not knowing how else to react. But there was one thing from that explanation that caught his attention.</p><p>“If Shiba Isshin is a pureblood alpha, like you,” he pointed, “how could he not have such an... extreme reaction on me?”</p><p>“He was mated to his late wife.”</p><p>Renji frowned, “but you were also mated.”</p><p>“I was not.”</p><p>The noble could see the utter confusion playing in his lieutenant’s eyes, and added with care, “Hisana was fragile, and already sickly when I found her... her body wouldn’t be able to take the ferocity of mating with an alpha.”</p><p>Renji couldn’t help but feel sorry at the revelation. He married a woman who he couldn’t mate, out of his love for her.</p><p>He was about to say it but was cut off when several new <em>reiatsu</em> entered the vicinity. The overwhelming scent of alphas clouded him, and he heard his captain snarled at the source, right outside the destroyed rooms. </p><p>He didn’t want this to happen, the raven thought, bracing for the conflict about to ensue.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you enjoyed that, more webs to be untangled~</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Byakuya glowered at the <em>engawa </em>that was left on view by the gaping state of his room, anticipating conflict. His <em>reiatsu</em> was turbulent, yet it was tightly pulled back close to his skin.</p><p>An old lady showed herself, accompanied by his grandfather and another older gentleman.</p><p>“Byakuya-dono,” she said, her austere face made harsh with her grey hair pulled back into a traditional bun, wearing a tasteful forest green kimono as she stood right outside the destroyed shoji, looking as elegant as a koto player amidst a storm. Behind her, the sun had already begun to rise, making her shadows prominent and her features severe, “it is simply not done as the clan leader to not communicate your findings to the council as soon as you have it.”</p><p>Her voice commanded respect and obedience to those subjected to it, and Renji would have flinched if that winter glare was aimed upon him. Her sterling silver eyes were as sharp, if not sharper than he ever saw in his captain.</p><p>Granted, Kuchiki Byakuya was a well-accustomed recipient of such glares and fixed her with one of his own, glints of steel that the lieutenant couldn’t see from his position behind the captain.</p><p>“Touya-obaasama,” he remarked just as coldly, and then flitted to find his gaze on his grandfather and the other member of the Kuchiki council, looking back at them with calculative looks, “Ginrei-dono, Myogen-dono.”</p><p>The old woman scrutinized Renji with her sharp eyes, reminisce of his captain’s, judging him mercilessly. He pushed down the urge to cower, instead, he fixed her with a dark look, and growled, “what do you want?”</p><p>The woman, Touya, as he recalled, scoffed in a way that he could only describe with grace, and commented aloud, “Crude and boorish. Clearly untrained,” and she looked at somewhere around his groin to his horror, her observation purely clinical, "Lacking control, from the looks of things. But acceptable, for now. We shall take him in and announce to the other clans of our claim on the omega immediately, to avoid unnecessary discord.”</p><p>She talked as if he wasn’t there, insulted him like he couldn’t hear her—like he was a thing to be had, a pet to be groomed. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and stood up, ready to give her a piece of his mind—seniority and nobility status be damned.</p><p>The Kuchiki Head’s arm shot out in front of him, the warning look he gave Renji one that commanded him to stand down—not as an alpha, but as his captain. He flared his nose, fixed the raven with a scowl, and turn it to the old woman before snarling at her, yet keeping his words to himself.</p><p>The aged lady seemed unperturbed, her aura unmistakably screamed alpha yet held little influence on Renji, as with the other Kuchiki elders. Perhaps it was because his captain ‘marked’ him, he mused, making him less susceptible to another alpha’s pheromones. Or was it because they were mated alphas? After all, Captain Kyoraku had a stronger effect on him despite his unmated status—as far as he knew.</p><p>“Perhaps you should consider his standing as <em>my </em>lieutenant first and address him to the degree of respect he deserves, before treating him like an ordinary omega, Touya-obaasama,” Byakuya expressed with a hard voice, facing her own cold gaze head-on, “he deserves an explanation of his origin and other matters related, that his teachings never taught him before we can take the next proper step.”</p><p>“Byakuya-dono is right, Touya,” Ginrei stepped forward, placing an arm on his wife, “this is a rather delicate matter, and a quite different circumstance from our previous encounters with omegas, is it not?”</p><p>Renji watched as the two Captain and Ex-Captain of the Sixth Division tried to talk the seemingly stubborn woman out of her decisions, all the while still talking about him as if he wasn’t there. The other elder—Myogen? He had a distinct white haori like a captain—stepping out of the conversation entirely out of politeness, at least it seemed that way.</p><p>Kuchiki Touya narrowed her eyes to slits, her <em>reiatsu</em> flared though not to the same level his captain could, and huffed.</p><p>“As you wish, Byakuya-dono. The council will give you no more than a week to educate your,” she glanced at him blankly, making him tense up, “<em>lieutenant</em> of the matter before we can proceed. However, the council decrees,” by that she meant <em>her</em>, “that the omega shall be put under the surveillance of the Kuchiki Household and by direct measure, <em>yours</em>, as to ensure no leakage of information to unsavory outsiders. Are you accepting of these conditions?”</p><p>Renji inhaled indignantly, about to yell for her to go fuck herself and that he made <em>his</em> own decisions, not his captain, but—</p><p>“Very well,” Byakuya affirmed before the redhead even managed to form a coherent sentence.</p><p>His eyes were blown wide, his mouth agape as he watched the elders leave the vicinity, leaving them alone once again.</p><p>Byakuya turned to his lieutenant, expecting an outburst. “Aba—!” And his face was promptly rewarded with a solid uppercut, making him stagger several feet, his hand touching the side of his jaw in reflex, it seemed dislocated. Maybe he deserved that one.</p><p>Renji cursed aloud, his sore wrists throbbing almost too painful to bear. But it felt good, nailing the heartless asshole in the face like that. He wished he could do it more often.</p><p>“You just made decisions for me again! Who the fuck do you think you are, controlling my life like you own it?!”</p><p>Byakuya scowled at the feral redhead, snapping his jaw in place like it was nothing—though the bruising he could deal without. “Believe me, lieutenant, she wouldn’t like whatever words coming out of your mouth if you were the one to answer her.”</p><p>The redhead was about to retort smartly but paused. <em>Okay, that’s actually fair, </em>he admitted internally, but obviously he wouldn’t say it out loud. So instead he fixed his most withering look at his captain. The raven noticed this, knowing he hit the mark, and straighten himself up.</p><p>“Now come, Abarai, I will take you to your new residence before we shall go to fulfill our duties in the Sixth. We will begin your lessons tonight.”</p><p>“Resid—<em>lessons</em>?”</p><p>“Such are the conditions given by the <em>council</em> if you were to be spared from immediate induction into the family, as you have heard from my <em>esteemed</em> grandmother.” The sarcasm dripping in the way he described his own grandmother was palpable. At least they shared the same sentiment about one thing—she was a nasty old woman if anything.</p><p>Renji was about to ask what his captain meant by ‘induction into the family’, only to be fixed a pointed stare and a short “<em>which</em> will be elaborated in your lessons. Come.”</p><p>He grumbled petulantly despite the less-than-favorable circumstances he landed on and followed the Kuchiki begrudgingly from the room—which he noticed, were entirely and irreparably destroyed. They would need to deconstruct the whole thing and build it up again from scratch. He wanted to feel guilty at ruining such a beautiful and expensive piece of architecture but found only grim satisfaction.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>The raven led him indoors, into the long and vast hallways of the ridiculously gigantic manor, walking several steps ahead—rather, Renji was being particularly childish and wouldn’t be caught beside the noble if he could help it. The Kuchiki stopped in front of an elaborately decorated fusuma and slide it open, gesturing for the younger shinigami to come inside. Renji gave the raven a side-along glare for good measure as he walked in, eyeing the large room disdainfully, even though he was internally awing at how beautiful the paintings on the fusuma were, how fluffy the already made futon looked, and how he was given a great view of the vast garden outside.</p><p>His eyes stopped at the clothing hanging by one side of the wall—his shihakusho. Then he started to notice other things in the room, <em>distinct</em> enough to observe—<em>his things</em>. His headbands, his unused lieutenant badge, and heck, his recently purchased hair ties, and clip-on earrings!</p><p>“You already planned for this,” he said in realization, turning to the older shinigami standing by the fusuma.</p><p>A fine brow raised itself elegantly. “Obviously.”</p><p>Then that haggling with the old hag—Touya, whatever—the argument he made, the <em>acceptance </em>to her ‘terms’—it wasn’t even necessary. He knew exactly what was going to happen with or without her interference. The conniving bastard.</p><p>“Of course, the period Touya-obaasama has given us leaves a lot to be desired. However, I trust that you will not be difficult, Abarai.”</p><p>Renji hissed at the noble, bitterness gnawing at his already mounting anger, at how lost and utterly clueless he was to his current situation. He realized that if this continued, more and more of his choices would be taken from him.</p><p>“Do I really gotta stay here?”</p><p>“Do you wish to be forced into a role by the Kuchiki Council that you have no bearings and knowledge on, without any means of defense?” Byakuya countered with a question of his own.</p><p>He clicked his tongue, hated that the raven was right. The less he knew, the easier for these slippery ‘council members’ to control him. Like hell he would let that happen. He exhaled harshly and nodded his assent with a suffering sigh, “<em>fine</em>. I will play your game—for now.”</p><p>Byakuya resisted the urge to raise his brow again. The hilarity that Abarai though he had any choice in the matter was of the exemplary kind. Even without the Kuchiki Family getting into the knowledge of his status, various other noble families would know, sooner or later. They might be less merciful and understanding. Understandably, given his lack of knowledge of what he was being forced to dive into—Byakuya extended all sympathy for the omega if nothing else.</p><p>But instead, he only said, “very well. I will be staying in the room across, should you need my assistance.”</p><p>The lieutenant’s eyes widened for the many times that night—morning—and moved to protest the fact that his captain, and currently most hated person, would be staying so close to him but was too late as the fusuma was slid shut before his face. He slammed it open, catching the Kuchiki sliding <em>his</em> own shut and cursed.</p><p>There was no fucking way he would go into that room, even to simply curse and protest at the man.</p><p>“What are you getting yourself into, Abarai?” he sighed mournfully to himself once he was back inside his own quarters, getting into the habit of pitying himself.</p><p>It was entirely justified, he defended, given the shocking new information he gained about <em>himself</em>. Imagine, living with your own body for over a century with nothing out of the ordinary, until one day an outsider—practically a stranger, his captain was to him—told you something about your own nature that even you didn’t know.</p><p>For over one hundred and fifty years, he didn’t know about his omega status—heck, no one knew they existed, outside of the conspiracies. He and everyone else thought that he was a beta, <em>just like everyone else</em>.</p><p>Then why his ‘omega instincts’, as his <em>captain</em> said, only showed up now?</p><p>Questions swam in his head, numerous and overwhelming until he didn’t know where one start and the other began; his omega nature, the throbbing on his neck, his sensitivity to certain alphas, their behavior towards him, his scent, the <em>induction,</em> and whatever it involved, and the Kuchiki’s involvement.</p><p>His head began to throb, and he had to stop himself from overthinking before he fainted. Massaging his temples, he swept his eyes around the room to find his clothing—there were still several hours before he officially had to be at the barracks, so he <em>would find a comfortable kimono to wear</em>, he <em>would take a long, relaxing bath, </em>and he<em> would take a long-deserved nap god damnit. </em></p><p>It didn’t take long for his eyes to zoom in at the sturdy <em>tansu</em> where a sword rest was sitting above, the cabinet made of luscious dark red <em>hinoki</em> wood and sturdy metal frames. He checked inside each drawer, careful with his healing tender wrists, and found his clothing all neatly organized. Stifling the urge to curse at his captain again for no reason, he pulled out his favorite white and pink floral yukata and proceeded to venture out to find the bath. Surely, given the ginormous state of the manor, he was given a <em>private </em>one?</p><p>He opened the fusuma adjacent to the entrance to the room, finding a smaller, emptier room with a low table, a set of calligraphy tool neatly arranged atop of it. Not surprising for the Kuchiki to be forcing his boring hobbies onto Renji’s private rooms, given his experience in his captain’s Calligraphy Club. There was another set of fusuma on the other end of the small room, so he walked to it and slid it open.</p><p>As he suspected, the floor dipped on the other side, tatami making way for smooth, black rock floorings and shoji screens not a few feet away to prevent moisture from coming inside the calligraphy room, that sure enough led him to the bathroom. And it was indeed a fine one.</p><p>His own private washing space and his own large, private <em>furo</em>—he could almost cry at the sheer luxury. It was the first time he was ever been in a private bathroom, his days filled with <em>sento</em> and the crampy <em>furo</em> in the barracks. He opened a shoji that led to outside and gasped—<em>his own private outdoor onsen! </em>It even had tall, bamboo dividers to ensure his privacy.</p><p>Before he even knew it, his dank clothes were shed from his body, his fresh yukata thrown somewhere near the shoji. He paused, dipping his toes and smiled gleefully when finding the water bone-meltingly hot, before practically jumping into the water. He knew he probably should have rinsed himself first but couldn’t bring himself to care about proper etiquettes as he sunk deeper into the water and closed his eyes.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>He was in a rut.</p><p>Not the kind he severely scorned, the one that burnt his body and took from him his ability to think and be a proper <em>person</em>, mind.</p><p>No, it was more complicated. Perhaps, even petty if one would simply dare tell him.</p><p>Myogen-dono had sent to him a package via a courier, telling him that he had forgotten to give the young Kuchiki Head the item when the situation was rather tense before. He unclothed the soft leather pouch to find a rather large box filled with over a dozen glass vials inside with clear, bluish liquid in each vial. He instantly recognized it as omega dampeners, formulated to suppress their pheromones while dulling their sensitivity to alphas.</p><p>A short note told him that Myogen-dono always kept a batch at the ready, even though the last omega they had was fifty years ago, Byakuya’s own wife—which lent a bitter tightness to his chest. As the chief of medicine and the Kuchiki’s long-time physician, Byakuya surmised that he was brought by his grandparents to ascertain his lieutenant’s condition, only for things to went South before a proper examination could even be conducted.</p><p>The note told him as the maturity of the omega inside his lieutenant was still unknown, half a dose of the vial per day was recommended to lessen the risk of lethargy due to the numbing side effects.</p><p>The note also told him that he should bring it to Abarai immediately<em>. </em>Abarai, who he knew was still positively infuriated with the recent events, and by a close extend, him.</p><p>He peered to the gardens, the sun already entirely out of the horizon’s blanket, lending them about an hour before they needed to go to the barracks. Standing up, the noble decided that an invitation to breakfast was a reasonable enough excuse and ventured out from the safety of his room.</p><p>Despite the lack of trace <em>reiatsu</em>, the lieutenant’s distinct scent lingered in the empty room. Sakura yokan and warm sake, the aroma of his guilty pleasures invaded his nose.</p><p>He breathed in deeply, guilt gnawing, his conscience telling him that he was being inappropriate—but it was the only way he could <em>taste</em> his lieutenant without further aggravating their strained relationship.</p><p>He had concealed it well; his instincts, his intentions—his need. Yet it was not enough, as he landed them in their current situation.</p><p>Their encounter at the office had jarred him, rendered his control over his baser instinct obsolete. The redhaired shinigami’s scent assaulted his senses and the scent of <em>others</em> on his lieutenant made his beast roar for him to take and <em>mate</em> the omega before another did.</p><p>He refused to succumb to his primitive desires and managed to control himself before the beast completely took over.</p><p>Sweeping his eyes around the room and finding the open fusuma that lead to the calligraphy room, he followed Abarai’s scent. He knew where it would lead him, and he braced himself to face his difficult subordinate.</p><p>“Abarai,” he called out at the slightly ajar shoji to the bath, keeping distance due to politeness—and his deteriorating control, “are you decent?”</p><p>There was no answer, not even a growl of distaste. Worry gnawed at him and he called the other’s name again, louder. Same result. Taking a deep breath—regretting it, for the omega’s scent was stronger there—he steeled his resolve and slid the shoji open.</p><p>The bathroom was empty, with no sign of the washing station nor the <em>furo</em> being used. The lieutenant’s soiled garment was a damp pile in the middle of the room, temptingly calling for him. A freshly laid yukata near the shoji to the outdoor onsen—oh.</p><p>He took dreaded steps, convincing himself that he was making sure of the other’s wellbeing, in case he drowned himself in the water accidentally, or worse, due to stress. He slowly slid open the shoji, as to not startle the redhead in the off chance that he was aware, and promptly froze.</p><p>His alpha instincts roared, his heartbeat erratic and he clenched his jaws, his fists making deep indentations on his palms with how tightly he was reigning himself in.</p><p>
  <em>The omega was vulnerable.</em>
</p><p>Abarai was laid out before him, facing him, his front half-submerged, only temptingly hidden by the cloudy onsen water—his mark was <em>red</em> and glaring on the neck dangerously bared as the lieutenant rested his face on one arm. His beast shouted at him, telling him it was a clear invitation to claim but he <em>knew better</em>. He was supposed to.</p><p>He closed the shoji almost too strongly to his taste, walked away, only for his feet to catch the other shinigami’s discarded shihakusho. With trembling hands, he picked the garments up, the smell of Abarai and his omega pheromone lulling him to oblivion. His fingers grazed over a damp patch and he paused. It was on the back of his hakama.</p><p>It was slick.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>He is ready. Claim mate.</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>No.</em>
</p><p>His mind went blank as the beast nearly took over control, and before he could do anything worse to himself—and to Abarai—he put the box of vials atop the white yukata the redhead had laid out along with the note from Myogen-dono, and left the vicinity with his shunpo, if only to avoid doing something he would sorely regret.</p><p>By the time he realized it he was halfway on the other end of the estate, hidden by the underbrush of a cherry blossom tree, green leaves of Summer fluttered with the wind he carried. His breathing haggard, he leaned against the rough bark and let out a shuddering sigh. If a servant was to find him in such a state, they would surely be shocked.</p><p>He brough his hand to his face, the little slick that his fingers picked up already dried up, but the mellow sweetness remained. It was the same thing with his lieutenant’s scent gland again.</p><p>Even now, he wanted nothing but to go back and claim his feisty lieutenant as his own, fill him with his seed and watch him grow big with his heir.</p><p>It terrified him, how one could lose one’s self to hunger so <em>primitive</em>.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>Renji was jolted awake with the slam of the shoji screen. He groggily blinked, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes with his hand. Looked like he slept for a long while in the <em>onsen</em>.</p><p>His nose whiffed the scent of a certain alpha and he immediately stood up. Slamming the shoji into the bathroom open once again, he was greeted with—no one. But he was certain that it was Kuchiki Byakuya’s scent he was smelling, even as he strode deeper into the room, uncaring of the mess he made from all the water his nude body dripped all over the floorings.</p><p>One thing he noticed since he knew of his omega status was that his nose sensitivity had turned up several notches. He picked up his dirty uniform, smelling the captain’s pheromone that made a shiver ran down his spine. His head swiveled to his yukata and found a wooden box with a folded parchment on top.</p><p><em>So he really was here just now</em>, the redhead seethed internally, finding the raven’s audacity to simply enter into his rooms without his permission infuriating. Granted, everything in the rooms, as was the entire estate, belonged to the captain, but it was still <em>Renji’s personal space</em>.</p><p>He read through the note and opened the box. He wanted to be skeptical but found himself short of any care to give. If it was something that could help him from being attacked by hungry alphas—a conclusion he picked up from their previous conversation, basically—he would take that chance. He gulped down the recommended dose, finding the liquid thicker than water, almost like syrup but had a mild sweetness reminiscent of Urahara’s tablets.</p><p>Perhaps he was being an impressionable person as he often was. At least he knew when to not be bullheaded when his own ass was on the line, literally.</p><p>He looked at his yukata, and sighed. He got his relaxation in the onsen anyways.</p><p>He picked it up along with his dirty <em>shihakusho</em> and padded his way back to the main bedroom, still naked as the day he was born. Looking around and finding what looked like a rattan basket, he deemed it suitable for laundry and dropped his uniform there, not noticing the slick on his hakama—not knowing what it meant just yet.</p><p>He shrugged on a freshly ironed one that was hanged near the <em>tansu</em> and placed his yukata back into its proper drawer. When he was finally able to collect himself, tying his long hair up securely, and felt a semblance to normalcy, he finally left the room.</p><p>A servant found him wandering the hallways alone and lead him to the dining room, where his breakfast already awaited. He felt out of place, being served and catered to when for so long he had always had to care for himself. They even called him with a ‘-sama’ honorific, as if he was some sort of young lord.</p><p>“Just Lieutenant Abarai or even, <em>heck</em>, just Renji is fine,” he grumbled with a fluster on his cheeks, earning him a smile from an elderly caretaker who nodded her understanding and left him to his privacy.</p><p>As he thought, the Kuchiki Head was not there. A simple question to the elderly woman before she left—Chiyo, she called herself—told him that the ‘master’ already left some while ago.</p><p><em>Avoiding confrontation, I see, </em>he thought snidely as he stabbed the rice with his chopsticks, imagining the soft morsel he bit into was the raven’s pompous head. <br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>They were playing the silent game.</p><p>The other officers tittered around the captain and lieutenant, avoiding their shared office if necessary. Even Renji’s number one follower, Rikichi, was found only once entering the room to deliver an entire mounting stack of paperwork just so he didn’t have to deliver them in multiple batches.</p><p>In the office, the tension could be cut with a sword. The captain, for his part, looked as calm as he ever was, no unnecessary movements as he read through and sign reports and proposals. If one were to look closely, however, they could see his eyes darting every few seconds to where his lieutenant was currently sitting in his own station, akin to nervousness.</p><p>Renji’s murdering aura could make even the bravest of the Eleventh Division cower, his eyes unusually cold, and every glance at an officer who came in to give him deliveries or messages sent them scurrying away just as quickly. His <em>reiatsu</em> snapped and lashed around him, targeting particularly his superior officer in a less than subtle way. This had been going on for at least four hours.</p><p>Byakuya stifled a frustrated snarl bubbling in his throat when another lashing of the redhead’s wild <em>reiatsu </em>attacked him, ruffling his haori that had gotten worn down, and slapping against his skin as if they had physically manifested. If nothing else, it seemed that his lieutenant had gotten a better control at manipulating his <em>reiatsu</em>. And at the very least, the younger <em>did</em> drink the dampener despite his inherent stubbornness, if the lack of tantalizing omega pheromones was any indication—he wouldn’t admit that he was a tad disappointed.</p><p>He couldn’t endure the abuse anymore near the end of the workday and extend his own <em>reiatsu</em> throughout the room, some excess seeping outside the door that made other shinigami avoided being near the office entirely. He heard a grunt from the redhead, and saw those eyes finally directed at him, blazing with fury, his teeth bared and canines sharp, akin to a beast. A one of a kind omega, indeed.</p><p>“This has gone long enough, lieutenant,” he said lowly, standing up, “I will not tolerate any more insubordination from you.”</p><p>Renji stood up as well, raising his head defiantly, “what are you gonna do about it, <em>Captain</em>?” he taunted, “gonna force yourself on me again? <em>Put you clai—”</em></p><p>The Kuchiki was in front of him in an instant, clamping a hand tight around the redhead’s neck with a dangerous glint of warning in his eyes. He snaked an arm around the taller shinigami’s waist and used shunpo to immediately leave the vicinity.</p><p>Before he realized it, Renji was being pinned to a soft tatami by his wrists as his thighs were straddled by strong legs. His eyes widened when he realized they were inside the Kuchiki Manor. How fast could the noble use his shunpo?</p><p>“Didn’t I tell you,” Byakuya growled into his ears, “that walls have ears? You should be careful of what your big mouth let out, Abarai.”</p><p>“<em>Fuck, </em>what’s the big deal?!” the younger shouted, bucking against the deathly grip on each of his wrists to no avail, “let me go, you bastard!” He fixed his harshest glare as if the look alone could make the Kuchiki succumb.</p><p>The raven frowned at his feral subordinate, “I do not deserve this level of disrespect, Abarai.”</p><p>Renji snorted, disbelief at the raven’s nerve to be so <em>arrogant</em>, “oh you don’t think so, you <em>perverted peeping tom</em>?”</p><p>Byakuya froze in realization of what the other was talking about, a brief moment that Renji utilized to break free and scooted away from the older shinigami. He glanced around the room for a brief second and found that it wasn’t his room. A familiar set of bone ornaments as the one on the Kuchiki’s head made him realize with dread that it was the noble’s room that his captain brought him to.</p><p>“I called your name several times, but you did not respond,” the raven’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts, “that was why I walked in to ensure your safety.”</p><p>“Oh you walked in, all right,” Renji snapped, “you walked right in there, didn’t you?” sarcasm dripping full of petulant accusation, knowing that the other knew what he was talking about.</p><p>He was slammed against the wall, finding himself in a highly familiar position, once again. The Kuchiki’s eyes were dark, the coldness gone, replaced by an odd, blazing emotion as he snarled.</p><p>“You have no idea, Abarai, how irresistible you are to me.”</p><p>Those words caught him off-guard, shocked by the honesty. He stared dumbfounded at his captain, whose face was looming over him, too close for comfort. His hands found purchase on the raven’s chest to shove the offending figure away, and they too were caught, the pale hands on his wrists like shackles, unbudging. His mostly healed wrists screamed in protest, but he stubbornly refused to tell the Kuchiki of his plight.</p><p>Then the tone suddenly shifted. The aura in the room softened along with the elder’s gaze, the hold on his wrists slacken, though still firm as thumbs massaged his joints in what seemed like an apology. He waited, not wanting to be caught in a backlash with a sudden move, and stayed still.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” the Kuchiki murmured, his voice dark as molasses and just as sweet, and Renji was taken aback. He was like a different person altogether.</p><p>“There is no excuse for my misconduct that put your virtue at risk, forgive me.”</p><p>
  <em>Virtue—what?</em>
</p><p>The older shinigami nuzzled at his cheek and trailed down to his neck, all the while he found himself unable to think. His body felt heated, and even with the dampener he took, the Kuchiki still somehow managed to influence him.</p><p>“You must understand,” it was whispered to his neck, the other side of his healing mark, “you are extremely desirable. No alpha would be able to resist you, Abarai.”</p><p>He shivered, the hot breaths against his sensitive nape stirring something strange in his belly, his own breath hitching. The face that looked up to him was warm and strangely affectionate, making him realize just how attractive his captain was without his usual cold demeanor. It would be a lie if he said he wasn’t attracted to the man, much like most people who knew of the raven.</p><p>Said attraction was buried under decades of strong will to defeat the man, under his more competitive nature that would rather chase after the man’s strength than his looks, if only to stand on equal grounds with him, proving his worth. And it was also buried under his recent hatred for what the noble did just the other day, something that could very well change the course of his life for worse.</p><p>But they were all fading rapidly, his mind blank of all rationale, his heart pounding as his breaths quickened. Long, elegant nose touched his own and they breathed the same air. With the dampener in his system, all he could smell from the older man, being so close to him, was the natural musk of his skin. The scent masculine, holding an edge of bittersweet blossoms the noble loved so much. It made him fuzzy.</p><p>“Even with the dampener, <em>you smell so sweet</em>,” Byakuya breathed against the younger’s heated ear, kissing the lobe as a lover would.</p><p> His words left him. Those thunderstorm eyes holding his soul captive. A hand placed on the wall beside his head, another holding the side of his face, tilting him in the way the alpha liked. He sat there against the wall, cornered like a caught prey yet unblinking, noticing the most mundane things, like how long his captain’s lashes were, and how handsome his passionate expression was. Their lips were a hairbreadth away and his vision blurred due to the proximity, his eyes slid shut in sweet surrender.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sexual tension after sexual tension... tell me is it getting tiring? I just can't help but make them want each other even when they hate each other lol</p><p>And bratty Renji shows up a lot here xd</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He let himself be entranced. Be pulled into the moment, letting his desires take control.</p><p>His lieutenant was defenseless like this. Falling into the abyss of his instinct to submit, at the slightest push. His bronze orbs glossed over as they fell shut, letting long, red curtains of lashes took their place, resting on high cheeks. His breathing was shallow, his skin flushed in anticipation of what was about to come. His lips parted in need, ready to receive him into its warm cavern. And Byakuya could already imagine how red, how swollen they would be in a few moments after he took his sole desire from his sweet captive.</p><p>And so, his own eyes drifted shut, and with the restrain that could stop the earth, he pulled away.</p><p>Renji opened his eyes when he felt the warmth fading, dazed confusion as he watched the alpha looked at him with grief and clinical observation mulled into one. Did he do something wrong, he wondered to himself, that made the raven stop—</p><p>“Look at how easily you submit to my advances.”</p><p>Chills ran down his spine and as if being drenched by ice water, he froze up and the fog cleared. His rapidly beating heart thundered in something worse than excitement. He scrambled to escape, pushing away hands that tried to stop, shouting over words that served to calm.</p><p>Byakuya acknowledged that trying to prove his point could have been done better, without him having to make a complete villain of himself. He admitted this one flaw, as he tried to get his lieutenant to come down from his hysterics.</p><p>“Must you always act this way with every revelation of your own nature?!” he raised his voice as he caught Abarai’s arms from tearing his shoji down.</p><p>The eyes that met his own were filled with fear and fury, angry tears threatening to fall. “if you’re not such a bastard maybe I will struggle less often!” he spat, wrenching his arms from the noble’s weakening grasp.</p><p>Byakuya let go of the lieutenant, taking a step back for good measure. Abarai kept to himself, hunching his shoulders and hugging his own body to make himself as small as possible, frightened, yet glaring at him with the ferocity of a wild animal. The redhead didn’t make any move to escape despite being only a step away from the door, and Byakuya inclined his head, finding that Abarai’s words were true.</p><p>Like a cornered cat.</p><p>“You are right, Abarai, I was acting unnecessarily antagonistic. Forgive me,” he said in defeat, “let us start over. Come, we have a mere six days to teach you of your omega nature.” Byakuya walked to the shoji that led to his private gardens, sliding the screen open and gestured for the younger shinigami to follow him. If they would have this conversation, it would be better for the omega to know that he was not suffocated in an alpha’s room.</p><p>Renji, his body strung up in fight-or-flight mode, relaxed his stance at the raven’s amending words, yet made no move to come close.</p><p>The noble sighed. “I will not touch you unless I have your explicit consent.”</p><p>“I’m not an assault victim,” the redhead snapped, yet he found himself striding to the awaiting <em>engawa</em>, waiting for his captain to take his seat first, which the raven understood and complied with readily. Only then he dropped himself ungraciously several feet away from the noble, leaning against a wooden beam, not bothering with a proper <em>seiza</em> like the prim and proper noble who took to observing him.</p><p>“I just hate this,” he looked away, unable to meet that inquiring gaze and fixed his stare at the ants trailing in and out of an anthill on the ground, feeling oddly fragile in his own body.</p><p>He couldn’t understand any of it. He didn’t want to be an omega. He didn’t want to be a <em>weakling</em> who can be pushed around by the alphas in his life—being a beta in his shoes was a chore enough. But more than anything, he just wanted his normal life back.</p><p>He didn’t need to have his friends and colleagues constantly sniffing him up, eyeing him like a piece of meat—yes, he saw the looks Kira, and even Captain Kyoraku gave him the other day. And he most definitely didn’t need his captain <em>biting</em> him. That wasn’t what he signed up for in his life when he decided to become a shinigami—when he decided he wouldn’t be the underdog anymore.</p><p>And now...</p><p>“It is not a weakness, Abarai,” Byakuya suddenly said. He could more or less understand what his lieutenant was struggling with. The sudden shift in his life, everyone around him acting strangely... and his omega nature at the center of it all. He understood that Abarai was most likely blaming it for everything that happened, hating himself for not being able to escape his fate.</p><p>Renji scoffed, not feeling the same sentiment in his own mind with what had transpired since yesterday. “It’s done me a disservice so far, captain.”</p><p>The noble held himself back from bristling, still not used to having his usually obedient lieutenant so disagreeable with his remarks.</p><p><em>Try to put yourself in his position</em>, he told himself as he tried to rationalize his and the other’s clashing opinions, <em>try to understand</em> <em>his point of view. </em>And he saw it, the vulnerability behind those averted eyes, the desperation behind his nonchalant attitude, to be told that he was not weak. That what he had made of himself would not be ruined by the sudden revelation of his omega nature.</p><p>“You are a strong warrior and a fine lieutenant, Abarai,” he started, “your exemplary service to the Gotei 13 and the Sixth is paramount to the safety of Soul Society, and it is an honor to have you as my lieutenant in these past years, and hopefully, the long years to come.</p><p>“This, I have come to realize in recent times, along with your help in opening my eyes to what is important; to Rukia’s plight and my obsolete views of the laws. Know that I am forever in your debt. Your omega status does not erase your achievements, nor does it dictate who you are.”</p><p>Renji was rendered speechless at each word tumbling out of the noble’s lips, those eyes seeking his own had no shred of doubt nor deceit. The words uttered in such conviction, that made his heart flutter, his back tremble, and his eyes sting.</p><p>Byakuya saw this, and he panicked. “Perhaps I was being too forward, my apologies.”</p><p>“No,” the redhead said quickly, noting how easily his captain apologized now. How humbling the realization was. “I... thank you. I needed to hear that.”</p><p>Something changed at that moment. Something in their relationship shifted, without them knowing. From a superior and subordinate to, perhaps, comrades. Who had each other’s back, and support one another’s failings.</p><p>And for one of them, in hope, maybe even that of partners. Wistful thinking, he knew, given their sticky circumstances. But just as his eyes were opened to protect and cherish more than just his personal pride, his heart that had been cold and frozen was ever so slowly being melted. Inching close to giving love another chance in his lonely life. </p><p>They shared the silence, that once had been tense and antagonistic, but now held warmth and comforting acceptance.</p><p>Renji was the first to break the silence.</p><p>“You said that only the nobilities know of omegas... I assume Kira knew about it too, then.” And he was pretending in front of the others last night.</p><p>“The smaller families had never had an omega of their own, which was why their blood was so easily diluted with betas. The Third Division Lieutenant might have come across old texts and scriptures of the omega that once belonged to the larger clans, but I doubt he understood the significance given his lack of actions thus far.”</p><p>Renji wanted to ask what ‘actions’ the elder meant, but he knew he wouldn’t like the answer. <em>Most likely to stake a claim at me, </em>he thought, and thanked the heavens that the blond did no such things, as he was a <em>friend</em>. It would be like marrying Rukia—</p><p>Oh.</p><p>“She knows... doesn’t she?” he said, more of a statement than a question, his voice carried by the wind that started to turn cold as night approached. He knew that the noble understood who he was talking about.</p><p>The silence was all the answer he needed. He stood up, a destination in mind—a best friend to confront.</p><p>“You need not go to the Thirteenth,” Byakuya stopped him, looking up from his seated position at the looming figure.</p><p>“She will return for dinner tonight.”</p><p>The younger contemplated the thought for a moment. It would be unprofessional of him in front of Captain Ukitake to talk to his lieutenant about such a personal matter in his division. Not mentioning the silent warning in his captain’s voice.</p><p>
  <em>‘Walls have ears’, huh?</em>
</p><p>“I’m going back to my room.” the redhead said instead, and Byakuya let him go.</p><p>There was no use trying to get back to the ‘lessons’ they haven’t even started yet, given how fragile the younger’s hold on his calmness seemed to him. And he knew how much the redhead needed it for what was waiting for him in the near future.</p><p>The soft sound of the shoji that led out to the inner halls being slid shut reached his ears and he let out a long, shuddering sigh as he relaxed his muscles. He took a deep breath, reveling in the faint scent of the omega, subdued with the dampener in his system.</p><p>He clenched his fists in his lap, so harshly that his sharpened nails cut through skin, the sting grounding him.</p>
<hr/><p>It was his first dinner at the Kuchiki Household. He found relief that the other clan members had their separate mansions within the ludicrously large compound, and that the main house hosted only the head of the clan, his adopted sister, and now Renji himself. He wouldn’t be able to handle them, let alone the judgmental old hag.</p><p>The servants delivered their first course and promptly left them to their privacy as they readied the next one. It was a silent affair, the three occupants seemingly trying their hardest to not make eye contact and focus on the meal before them.</p><p>True to their noble wealth, even dinner was a nine-course <em>kaiseki </em>meal. Renji would have salivated at the different dishes, simmered, steamed, fried, and grilled to perfection, if not for how utterly lost his appetite was at that moment.</p><p>Rukia jumped rather obviously in her seat when she heard the sound of Renji’s cup filled with chilled <em>umeshu</em> hitting the wooden table at the end of their meal. She peered her eyes up to where her adopted brother was enjoying his tea—both he and Renji forwent desserts for the drinks of their choice—and then turned her violet gaze to where Renji was staring back at her.</p><p>She pushed down the nerves threatening to jump from her heart and out of her mouth.</p><p>“R-Renji, we,” she stammered, “we need to talk.”</p><p>“We do.” The confirming remark was immediate, and she flinched.</p><p>“Thank you for the meal,” the redhead uttered shortly with a slight bow, excusing himself from the table and promptly left the dining room. Rukia scrambled to a stand, hastily apologizing for her abrupt departure to her brother, and left the vicinity just as quickly.</p><p>She jogged down the hallway, annoyed by how fast her friend’s pace was. “Renji, wait up you oaf!”</p><p>The redhead in question paused on his way to opening up the shoji screens to his room, turned on his heels, and fixed the petite girl with a suffering look.</p><p>“You lied to me and <em>I’m</em> the oaf? Give me a break.”</p><p>She winced at the accusing words, knowing how badly he had caught her. “Ok, I’m sorry I lied to you—can we go and talk inside? Please,” she used her best sad puppy expression, something she knew the redhead wasn’t able to deny just yet. No way would she break down begging for forgiveness in the hallways.</p><p>Renji sighed, ushered her inside, and promptly took a seat on his futon littered with pillows and thick covers by the corner of the room, which incited a strange look from Rukia, but she chose not to comment as she knelt down some feet away from her long-time best friend.</p><p>He watched her squirm in her seat, could practically see the cogs in her brain turning faster than they had ever been, trying to form her words. It was almost pitiful, really, if only he cared. He wasn’t going to make it easy for her, letting the little princess slip away from troubles by forgiving her without her making an effort for it. </p><p>Oh, but he really didn’t expect Rukia to promptly slam her head against the tatami and prostrate herself in the most fantastic way he had ever seen in real life.</p><p>“Please find it in your generous heart to forgive your idiotic friend, Renji! I promise I won’t lie to you ever again, and I will never betray your trust ever!”</p><p>His eyes were blown wide. <em>That must have hurt</em>, he thought, the only thing that crossed his mind at that very moment. Then,</p><p>“Apologize normally, you little midget,” he muttered, scratching at his warming cheek.</p><p>He really couldn’t stay mad at her, could he? Not when she was so miserable that she deemed it worthy to stoop as low as to display such a perfect <em>dogeza</em> for his forgiveness. That counted as a pass for him.</p><p>Besides, after his anger exploded earlier that evening, and was subsequently calmed down by his captain’s words, he found being angry too exhausting to maintain.</p><p>Rukia snapped her head up, her forehead an angry red and her violet eyes glaring indignantly at him, “don’t call me a midget when I’m trying to apologize to you!”</p><p>But when she saw the mirth in his eyes, the lightness in his expression, she felt a large burden being lifted away from her shoulders, and the sinking feeling in her chest disappeared.</p><p>“I really am sorry for lying to you, Renji,” she said in a somber tone, “I had my suspicions since that dinner with Ichigo’s family... and his father confirmed it to me when you two left. I didn’t want to worry you so I thought it would be better to talk to nii-sama about it first, then he told me that I shouldn’t say anything to you just yet.”</p><p>“I guess he didn’t want me to take the brunt of your outburst...”</p><p>Renji smirked, “yeah, your brother got a nasty case of sister complex.”</p><p>“Don’t say that about my esteemed older brother,” she grunted, but slowly a smile crept to her lips and threaten to split her face in half.</p><p>Byakuya heard their muffled chortles inside his lieutenant’s rooms as he was on his way back to his and huffed out a short laugh of his own, relieved that his sister and her most important friend managed to resolve their conflict amicably.</p>
<hr/><p>“So this part of my neck will... secrete <em>oils</em> when I’m turned on?” Renji questioned with a grossed-out look on his face as he fingered the area between his neck and shoulder, where his captain’s bitemark was already fading away into a faint dark beige mark.</p><p>Byakuya felt his skin heating up at the crude wordings, his eyes lingering on his lieutenant’s fingers still on his fading bitemark. “It’s not so much sexual arousals as it is a biological response to an alpha’s pheromone to attract them. With the dampener you have been taking, the effects are significantly reduced to near zero.”</p><p>The lieutenant hummed, looking like a student with his detached approach to learning about his own biology. Byakuya was relieved he wasn’t taking out his anger every few seconds, but concern still latched on to his consciousness, fearing that the younger was deliberately putting a lid on his emotions and one day, it would explode.</p><p>He had taken to teaching the lieutenant of his omega nature for the past three days, starting from the most basic anatomical comparison to their supposed ‘role’ in a society of old, a topic that for once, made Abarai very heated and indignant.</p><p>They were now finally touching on the subject of pheromones and the dynamic between alphas and omegas, the sole reason why Byakuya realized of the other’s second gender at the office several days ago, after Urahara’s cryptic warning through his soul pager.</p><p>They had taken to do these sessions in Byakuya’s study, as opposed to their personal rooms—for Byakuya, out of decency that he learned from the last time they clashed, and for Renji, because he wasn’t ready to bring the alpha into the safe domain of his quarters yet.</p><p>He learned of this yesterday, the unique quirk of an omega’s need to have safety ‘nests’. He only realized what it was—that he took to gathering all the soft pillows and blankets he had to one corner of the room, pulling along his futon and having Zabimaru placed close to him as he slept—when his captain explained the concept to him. It was still strange, as it was so innate and something he didn’t think about, that he thought it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.</p><p>Everyone surrounds themselves with things that comfort them under such trying circumstances too, don’t they?</p><p>“While an omega’s scent glands are located in various erogenous zones,” the older shinigami started again, pulling him out of his musings, “as we discussed before, the ones on the sides of their neck are exceptionally larger as they are primed locations for a mating bite. The oil secretions are concentrated pheromones biologically designed to trigger a rut in an alpha once they reach a certain threshold, whether or not the omega is in heat.”</p><p>Renji wrinkled his nose at that, “so basically, everything about it is all for... ‘breeding’, is that it?”</p><p>“It is the natural instinct of both alphas and omegas, yes. It is not dissimilar to those of animals, in fact, even to those of humans or betas. Everything is simply... enhanced for the purpose.”</p><p>Seeing the disgruntled look in Abarai’s face, undoubtedly disgusted by such primal notions, he sighed, “but as you know, as intelligent creatures, we evolved to the more thinking beings we are now, rather than succumbing to our animal instincts. The development of our ever-advancing dampeners and heat suppressants are a testament to the superiority of our brains over our natural design.”</p><p>“But since the omega population is so low, those two things are not as used as they should,” Renji argued, recalling the lessons he had yesterday about the disproportionate demographic of omegas throughout the centuries. The nobles would be scrambling to get each one of them like collectibles to strengthen their bloodlines; dampeners or suppressants would be practically useless.</p><p>He deigned the thought that he too might be subjected to such things too horrifying to even entertain. He would kill anyone who tried to knock him up—even the concept of being able to get pregnant was still bizarre to him—alphas or not. He was Abarai Renji, the Lieutenant of the Sixth Division of Gotei 13, not some sort of breeding machine.</p><p>“That was not the case over a millennium ago,” the raven countered, “they were developed by healers of old due to the abundance of omegas that were back then identically as numerous as alphas, that rendered year-round mating unnecessary. However, the explosion of the beta population throughout Soul Society made encounters between alphas and omegas less frequent, and due to the random nature of an omega’s birth, less and less of them were identified. In fact, I suspect there are more omegas wandering the streets of Rukongai with the lack of alphas around to identify them.”</p><p>“Then why aren’t the nobilities dispatching alphas to find more omegas?”</p><p>“That is,” Byakuya paused, massaging his temples, “clan politics. It is a topic for another time, as it is a rather delicate matter.”</p><p>The secretive tone the noble used made Renji even more curious, but as he was about to prod the elder more, a voice entered the vicinity of the study.</p><p>“My deepest apologies to disturb your lessons, Byakuya-dono, Abarai-dono,” the man at the open shoji kneeled down and bowed. It was Myogen, the councilman from before.</p><p>“Myogen-dono,” the raven remarked, collecting his own thoughts, “to what do I owe this visit?”</p><p>They were getting off-topic, anyway.</p><p>Myogen sat up, his middle-aged face was kind with a small smile. “Ah, if you recall the note I sent along with the dampeners, Abarai-dono was supposed to undergo an examination to determine the maturity of his omega anatomy. I hope to conduct the exam before the induction takes place, is possible.”</p><p>“You’re a healer?” Renji interrogated. His stance was guarded at another alpha in his line of vision. Before, he would be less tense, but with the development of his second gender of recent and the things he had learned, he knew better than to let his guard down.</p><p>Myogen answered indulgently. “A physician, yes.”</p><p>“Same difference,” the redhead rolled his eyes and asked bluntly, “what sort of examination?”</p><p>“A standard check of your scent glands should suffice; ah I will of course need the dampener out of your system to examine—”</p><p>“No way,” Renji cut him off with a sharp glare.</p><p>The elderly man sputtered, “b-but we need to know how concentrated your omega pheromone is. I need it to develop a more suitable dampener and heat suppressants for you. The scent has been leaking, has it not?” Myogen turned to his clan head, who had been watching their exchange silently.</p><p>Byakuya hesitated to admit it, but he knew it would be for the better of them both. “It has.”</p><p>The redhead frowned. He had been taking a full vial every day since the first day, at his own liberty and later on, from his captain’s suggestion. He thought that it was enough, since there had been no ‘incident’ like the one from three days ago. Granted, it was his captain being an asshole rather than the pheromones themselves. But they had resolved that.</p><p><em>Does that mean he’s been struggling? </em>he mused, feeling strangely touched but annoyed. If there were other alphas, heck if Captain Kyoraku was to make a visit to the Sixth the past few days, there might just be trouble!</p><p>“Why haven’t you said anything, then?”</p><p>The raven blinked and surprisingly, averted his gaze without saying a word.</p><p>Strange.</p><p>“Ah, so as you can see, Abarai-dono, it is necessary. Rest assured, it is a short examination and you need not disrobe,” Myogen quipped nervously, glancing between the silent raven and the frowning redhead, trying to cut down the awkwardness.</p><p>“Like hell I’m gonna disrobe anyhow,” Renji scowled, “fine. let’s get this over with. What do I gotta do?”</p><p>“You can stay where you are, Abarai-dono. And Byakuya-dono is welcome to oversee the examination, of course, at least until the point before the dampener effect is removed. It will not take long.”</p><p>The raven hummed and without further question graciously stood up, leaving his own study. He knew that the removal of the dampener had a double-sided effect. He trusted Myogen to not make his lieutenant uncomfortable.</p>
<hr/><p>“Hm, interesting. Ah, would it be possible to know your age, Abarai-dono?”</p><p>“156,” Renji said tightly, holding his breath unnecessarily as the older man prodded at the sensitive scent glands on his neck and his wrists with some sort of metallic rod and an ancient-looking magnifying glass.</p><p>“Ah that explains it well. It is a perfectly normal time to come out with one’s second gender, and it seems your glands are just—”</p><p>He caught the man’s wrist as he was about to touch the gland on his neck by the healing bite mark with his own fingers. “<em>Don’t touch it</em>.”</p><p>Myogen blinked and chuckled nervously in the realization of what he was doing. “F-forgive me, I didn’t notice my actions when I am so deep in my own thoughts.”</p><p>Renji narrowed his eyes with a huff. The man looked like a gentle soul, no ounce of bad blood in his system. His kind face reminded him of Captain Ukitake, but he suspected he was as popular with the ladies as Captain Kyoraku in his younger days—or even still.</p><p>It was hard for Renji to trust a man like that. It was like he was hiding something behind that gentle mask of his, much like how scary Captain Unohana could be when ticked off. Of course, he could just be a paranoid person. His captain seemed to trust the physician.</p><p>“Now I want you to take this, Abarai-dono,” the older man said while handing him a white tablet, “this will flush the dampener from your system within a minute.”</p><p>The suspicion and worry in the younger’s eyes made Myogen smiled reassuringly. “I am mated, Abarai-dono. The effect of your omega pheromone would be practically nonexistent for me.”</p><p>He flushed at how easily the older man read him, taking the tablet with the cup of tea he was offered and gulped it down in one go.</p><p> It was a fast-acting drug. Just like Myogen said, within a minute, Renji could smell all the alpha pheromones in the room, his captain’s lingering scent almost overbearing. He was glad the other left, he didn’t know how much worse it would affect him otherwise.</p><p>“Be calm, my lord, this will not take long. Do not take a deep breath,” Myogen said in a hushed tone, his palm glowing a brighter green as he examined the concentrated omega pheromone coming out of his glands with his custom kido spell.</p><p>“W-why does it affect me so much?” he slurred out, his limbs trembling as his chest heaved. He put his fingers on his neck, finding the oily substance he learned about just some minutes ago.</p><p>“It is another downside of relying on dampeners, my lord. You are not getting used to the exposure. We are finished,” the physician said, at last, the glow on his palm fading and he handed another vial of dampener to Renji. “I will have a custom batch ready for you by tomorrow the earliest. For now, this will have to do.”</p><p>Renji nodded his thanks as he sipped at the content within the glass container, the light sweetness seeping into his palate and within minutes he could feel the effect of the alpha pheromones fading away into nothing more than a light buzz he had grown accustomed to.</p><p>“So if by some fucked up chance I find myself having none of this stuff, I’d be essentially a pile of horny goo with no sense of self when an alpha shows up and decide to knock me up.”</p><p>Renji saw the sympathy in the older man’s eyes and found himself hating it.</p><p>“It will not happen, I assure you,” Myogen said softly, “once the induction takes place, you will be trained to guard against any inappropriate advances made to you. Not to mention, there will be details surrounding you as with any important members of the family.”</p><p>This was the first time Renji heard of anything remotely close about the induction the past few days. Every time he asked for the topic to be brought up, his captain seemed to deem another topic more pressing to know—like his anatomy or the ancient history of the three dynamics and all the things Renji found tiring.</p><p>“So the induction basically means... I’m going to be a Kuchiki? Like Rukia is?”</p><p>Myogen nodded. “It is—”</p><p>“Myogen.”</p><p>Another voice, sharp and dreadfully familiar pierced through the man’s answer and they both turned to the front of the room.</p><p>Kuchiki Touya revealed herself with her grandson trailing beside her, a cold fury behind his eyes. Renji stood up instinctively, wishing he didn’t leave Zabimaru in his room. He didn’t know why but her presence made his fight or flight instinct kick in.</p><p>The physician inclined his head at the older councilmember with respect. “Touya-dono.”</p><p>Renji glared back at the old woman who did nothing but stare back at him with a cold, calculative look.</p><p>“I wish to speak with him alone,” she said, “leave.”</p><p>Myogen hesitated, he looked back at Renji, but he couldn’t possibly disobey her order. With a bow he left, throwing a side glance at the head of the clan who still stood by beside Touya.</p><p>“I said alone, Byakuya-dono.”</p><p>Ignoring her, the raven approached his lieutenant instead.</p><p>“Abarai,” Byakuya said quietly, a strange pleading look in his eyes, “whatever it is that she will say to you, please leave it in your heart to listen to me afterward.”</p><p>Renji frowned in confusion. It was the first time he saw his captain so stricken in worry and—<em>panic</em>. What was going on?</p><p>A hand shot up to grip his arm, slate greys glowing. “<em>Promise me, Renji</em>.”</p><p>His heart skipped a beat.</p><p>He wanted to say, ‘I thought you said you won’t touch me without my consent.’ But his head was only filled with the desperate way his captain called his name. Over and over again.<br/>
<br/>
<em>Renji. </em></p><p>It was the first time his captain called him like that.</p><p>He just nodded, speechless.</p><p>Touya observed, she analyzed the interaction between her grandson and the omega lieutenant. She didn’t spare Byakuya a glance as he left, slamming the door to the study shut none too gently. Even as an adult, he could be so terribly petulant.</p><p>“To be honest with you, I am quite disappointed with my grandson’s way of handling things.” She started, taking dainty steps closer to the tall redhead seething back at her. She was used to the treatment, like rain falling down one’s back. </p><p>“I have generously given him seven days to soften the blow, yet he has not even touched on the subject. Tell me, Abarai. Do you know why you are so sought after?”</p><p>He glowered at the sharp features staring <em>down</em> at him. “Because omegas make you pureblooded alphas.”</p><p>“Correct,” she inclined her head, “but that is only half the answer.”</p><p>“What’s the other half?”</p><p>She applauded the younger’s bravado, those brazen orbs looking straight at her were unwavering, where most would have looked away. She suspected that even without the dampener in his system, he would try to fight every instinct to submit in front of an alpha in their prime.</p><p>One of a kind indeed. It only served to worsen his situation, alas. Being such a powerful omega only made him more desirable to produce a stronger offspring.</p><p>“Omegas are not simply rare. You are the first one identified in over three hundred years; my grandson’s infertile wife uncounted. Every single noble family will hunt you down the moment they know you are unclaimed. Do you know what that means?”</p><p>He thought his heart stopped beating at that point.</p><p>When he learned what he could about the omegas with his captain, he was always under the impression that the existence of omegas was hidden from the beta population because they were simply a tightly guarded secret due to the nobles’ greediness. He never thought otherwise, that he was the only one they found in so long, and his captain never sought to correct his misconception. The fragile trust that had been formed weakened once again.</p><p>Then she kept talking and kept telling him things he regretted to ask for.  </p><p>“Your position in the Gotei 13 would no longer be possible to maintain. Even betas will desire your powerful womb for their own. And as much as you think you are capable, as I am sure you are thinking even now, in the face of hundreds of alphas seeking to claim you as their own you will not stand a chance.”</p><p>He couldn’t imagine it. Couldn’t imagine how his friends, how his comrades and brothers in arms would desire him. Couldn’t imagine a life as anything other than a shinigami.</p><p>Hisagi’s conspiracies rung in his head and cycled on repeat, over and over again.</p><p>“The only way to survive is to become a part of the Kuchiki. You will be kept in our shrine, where you will serve your duty to the clan.”</p><p>She took his chin in her wrinkled fingers, a dark edge to her smile as she looked up at his wavering eyes. She had caught him, and he was now frozen as terror roiled in his head, trapped in his own nightmare.</p><p>“You will be our god of fertility.”</p><p>
  <em>—kept in underground dungeons and treated like some sort of barn animals.</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>He didn’t keep his promise to his captain. He didn’t listen, <em>couldn’t</em>. He wanted to hate and destroy and <em>kill</em> and spill their blood with his own hands. He wanted to gouge those pleading eyes with his fingers and burn the entire compound to the ground it stood upon. He wanted to rage for the injustice, anything to escape the nightmare.</p><p>All he found was emptiness.</p><p>When she left him in that study, alone and falling down to his knees, she took from him his sole hope for freedom. She made him see the futility of a fight. Made him see how helpless he would be when they could threaten him with the absence of the drugs that could maintain his sanity amidst the dominating auras of alphas.</p><p>Made him realize he was alone in this fight, as everyone would seek to capture him.</p><p>
  <em>...even my friends?</em>
</p><p>“Renji.”</p><p>Rukia came to him that night, unshed tears in her violet eyes spoke of the things she was made known, determined, and unwavering. To help.</p><p>A friend.</p><p>“Let’s run away.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Why did you do it?” he gritted his teeth, the flash of the senkaimon’s gate being opened blinding him momentarily amidst the starless sky and moonless night, casting an eerie glow to the bone-white ornaments on his head.</p><p>Her voice was weary with age, the cold already slipping away. “You know exactly why.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For the silent lurker Nimi, hope this 'cheer' you up xD (don't kill me)</p><p>Warning for this chapter: dubious or non-consensual touching due to the use of a fictional substance.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>They ran, hands held tight to each other as if letting go would mean one of them would disappear</em>.</p><p>“What...” he trailed off, his right hand still on the knob when he opened his front door, looking at the girl who made an unexpected visit at such an ungodly hour.</p><p>
  <em>His eyes were dry but hers weren’t, she rubbed them harshly with her sleeve, picking up their pace. </em>
</p><p>“Rukia...?” there was a frown forming on his brows, worry starting to grow at the way her shoulders shake, her eyes wet.</p><p>
  <em>The end of the tunnel came close, collective sighs of relief as they jumped, her excitement making her flew ahead and let go for a split second.</em>
</p><p>He stepped out more, realizing she wouldn’t be moving from her spot anytime soon. “What happened?”</p><p>
  <em>Shadows chased close behind them and as she turned her head to smile at him—</em>
</p><p>She took in a shuddering breath, looking up at him desperately as if he held the answer to her plight. “They took him.”</p><p>Above them, the thunders roared, and lightning struck the cold, moonless night, awaiting a storm.</p><p>“They took Renji,” she cried.</p><p>Ichigo stared blankly at the crying girl, his brain going numb.</p>
<hr/><p>They were in a nondescript building in the Kuchiki compound, separated from the main house by the small river running in the northwest corner of the estate. As the head of the clan, Byakuya sat straight in an impeccable seiza by the front of the one-room structure, a <em>zaisu</em> with a wooden armrest for his right arm accentuating his authority amongst the plain cushions the rest of the occupants sat upon. On either side of him, the nine other councilmembers sat, a tray of tea and complementary—yet decidedly bland—snack dishes sitting in front of them.</p><p>It was an emergency call, made by an emergency situation that had dawned upon them late last night. He could only blame himself for the situation they were in, despite the root of the problem lying in the past decisions of these people he called his family, along with the rest of the other clans. Still, he loathed doing these meetings every time they occurred, for very obvious reasons.</p><p>A wrinkled hand slammed against the tatami, reverberating around the small room and spilling some of the hot tea near where the hand landed none-too-gently.</p><p>“What do you have to say about this situation, Byakuya-dono?!” the old man the hand belonged to shouted, spit flying and face red in outrage as he glared at the clan leader sitting calmly at the front of the room, and despite the rich silk kimono he was dressed in, the image of a wild boar came into mind.</p><p>The several seconds it took for Byakuya to answer was tense, so thick that it could almost be touched.</p><p>“It was never my intention to have them run away, Kuzui-dono,” he said evenly, his eyes stormy as he met the dull grey ones of the councilman.</p><p>“Of course it <em>wasn’t</em>,” the man in question jeered condescendingly, his entire demeanor screamed his disdain of the Kuchiki who stood above all of them, his disapproval of his very existence. Kuchiki Kuzui was a very disagreeable man, more so than his esteemed grandmother, in a quite nastier, greasy, and underhanded way he would never associate with the ever-proud Kuchiki Touya.</p><p>“’them’?” another councilman queried, equally old yet his mien told only worry and curiosity at the problem they were facing.</p><p>Myōgen was the one who answered, sensing the negative energy practically oozing out of Byakuya’s skin. The man, despite his obvious seniority over Byakuya, was the youngest in the group of the nine Kuchiki council, and in his opinion, the least orthodox when it came to traditional values—a quality that the old nobilities severely needed.  “Kuchiki Rukia left along with the omega, Enjomaru-dono.”</p><p>It brought murmurs amongst the rest of the elders.</p><p>“That little Rukongai <em>rat</em>,” Kuchiki Kuzui spat in disgust, “she must’ve influenced him.”</p><p>Just as those words left his mouth, a violent burst of <em>reiatsu</em> spread across the room, followed along by the rise of a dominant alpha pheromone subduing the rest of the old nobles. Byakuya widened his posture and expanded his presence, his eyes glaring wide at the man who dared to sully his sister’s name.</p><p>“Need I remind you, <em>Kuzui</em>-dono, that ‘little Rukongai rat’ is <em>my</em> sister? And that <em>my</em> lieutenant, the omega you so desire for our clan, is also of the same origin?”</p><p>The fact that his late wife, the one they had scorned for her condition, for his decision in taking her in an official marriage before her death took her merely five years after their union. The fact that <em>she</em> was the sister of the only woman he ever loved, went without him having to say anything.</p><p>Because that old pig wouldn’t <em>dare</em>. Not if he cherished his life, not if he held a shred of intelligence left in his counting days.</p><p>So as expected, Kuzui shrunk back, his lesser beast telling him to stand down at the power that was greater than his. His snarl was still stubborn on his gnarly face, however, but he turned them to Touya, who was quietly looking down at the teacup on her lap as if she couldn’t sense the conflict brewing inside the room.</p><p>“And Touya-dono,” he started again, clearly wasn’t done in throwing accusations at everyone he loathed, “must you always scare the omegas? The last fertile ones several hundred years ago also tried to run because of you, one of them even <em>committed suicide</em>.”</p><p>At this she froze, her posture rigid as ice before she schooled her features, and sneered, setting her teacup down to the wooden tray before her with a resounding tap. “I simply told them the reality of their position. If they try to run because of that perhaps <em>we don’t need them</em>.”</p><p>She leaned forward in her seat and fixed her fellow alpha a challenging glare, daring him to continue his tirade and face the consequence. The other, just as she expected, backed down like the coward she knew he really was, for the second time in that meeting.</p><p>“Now, Touya, you don’t mean what you said,” Ginrei tried to placate his wife, the words she uttered so cruelly that hid a turbulent emotion worried him.</p><p>“Do not dictate me, Ginrei,” she hissed at her husband.</p><p>The former Kuchiki Clan head sighed, having faced similar scenarios in the past to know she would only get worse if he was to try to calm her down. Being both alphas, their marriage was riddled with moments like these, and after what he could only admit to being a long time since, he realized that one of them needed to be the more mature one, and let go of the fight before it escalated to bloodshed. He knew her character enough in the five hundred years of their marriage that she simply couldn’t be the one to stand down, so he took the position upon himself graciously.</p><p>Byakuya felt himself growing a headache at the childish council he was holding, despite their supposed wisdom and experience dwarfing his own. Greed always brought down even the best of principles.</p><p>“I will find Abarai and my sister myself,” the clan leader stood, knowing every second spent was a waste of time that could be spent being productive and loomed above his elders as he declared, “this council is over.”</p><p>They protested, Kuzui being ironically the least spoken, but he wasn’t having any of it.</p><p>“Do you know where they have gone, Byakuya-dono?” Myōgen asked amidst the murmurs, silencing them.</p><p>Byakuya turned his face, looking at Myōgen, and then the rest of the elders as he stood by the shoji that would lead him outside.</p><p>But instead of answering the question, he said, “the clan shall not interfere in this matter again."</p><p>The murmurs grew louder, and Kuzui finally came out of his shell to shout, “the omega belongs to the clan! He belongs to the Kuchiki shrine, how <em>dare</em> you suggest—!”</p><p>Byakuya’s <em>reiatsu</em> burst again, and this time, even Touya looked as if she would sooner collapse to her side if not for her hand on the tatami supporting her. The strength of his alpha pheromone subjugated the rest of the room, reminding them why he was quoted ‘the strongest Kuchiki in generations’, and just what further questioning his decision would entail.</p><p>He heard no protests after that.</p>
<hr/><p>The first time he woke up, his head was drowsy and his eyes foggy. He was floating jumpily several feet off the ground, something solid and huge cradling the length of his body as if he was a child.</p><p>“He’s starting to wake up,” a voice remarked in measured calmness, coming close above him.</p><p>“<em>How</em>?” a second one hissed, further away, sounding aggravated.</p><p>“A <em>lieutenant</em>. Hit him with another dose.”</p><p>Something zapped him, pricked his skin and he could feel it in his <em>heart</em>, and with a whimper, his eyes drifted shut against his will.</p><p>.</p><p>The next time he woke up, it was cold. A hand touched his bare shoulder and he shuddered. His vision was dark, and he felt something soft against the skin of his face. A blindfold. Heavy breathing touched his ears, hot air ghosting over his neck and cold dread ran down his spine.</p><p>“R-Rukia...” he panted, “where...?”</p><p>“So enchanting,” a voice said, almost whispered in reverence as fingers trailed down his chest and another set on his back, where his tattoos rested, “but we can’t have you struggling now.”</p><p>He was zapped again and this time, he screamed as his consciousness was torn away.</p><p>.</p><p>When he woke up again, a breathy whine escaped his lips. His entire body was on fire, the silk against his skin felt rough and every graze made something inside him burn. His skin felt hot, covered in the same material around his eyes, and they slid with every squirm, something slick sticking between his thighs.</p><p>“Where am I?” he shouted raggedly, struggling against the restraint that held his arms and legs captive, his body laid on a velvety surface that only served to make him sweatier. His <em>reiatsu</em> felt dull, and amidst his jumbled thoughts and delirium, he knew it had something to do with the restraints, sapping at his energy like a leech.</p><p>“You said it’s safe,” someone snarled, his voice further away from where he was. From the echo, they were in a large room with a high ceiling. The air was clear, so he ruled out an underground structure from his head.</p><p>“He’s only running his mouth. His <em>body</em>, however,” another person said lowly, soft footsteps approaching, and he touched on Renji’s chin with a calloused thumb, making him hold his breath, “it has submitted beautifully.”</p><p>He let out an involuntary moan when a large hand caressed his back through the satiny cloth covering his body, struggling to maintain focus. Something trickled between his legs, and in horror, he realized it came from his anus.</p><p><em>Calm down</em>, he told himself, <em>it’s a drug. it must be a drug, they put something in me. </em></p><p>“We still need to wait until this damned mark heals,” the first person complained, footsteps grew near until a hand tugged at the collar of the robe he wore, making him hiss at the sticking sensation—his gland was profusely secreting.</p><p>“Who are you?” he roared, trying to summon his <em>reiatsu</em>, to be intimidating even when he was at the mercy of his captors. They chuckled in amusement at his struggles. He growled, but it ended with a gasp when alpha pheromones washed over him like a tsunami.</p><p>He arched his back against the restraints on his limbs, his muscles taut, his eyes squeezing shut under the blindfold and he moaned.</p><p>It felt <em>wrong. </em></p><p>“What a tempting sight,” the second person purred, cradling his weak head, and he instinctively nuzzled his captor’s hand. Something nudged at the nape of his neck, another at the gland on the left side of his neck and he felt hot air being blown on the two sensitive spots before he felt them inhaling his scent deeply.</p><p>“Careful not to aggravate the mark,” one said to the other, “<em>he</em> might notice.”</p><p>“I’m not an idiot,” was the fuming answer. Renji couldn’t understand what they meant, all he could understand was the relentless pheromones and touches on his clothed skin, making him want to scream for them to take them off and <em>do something</em>.</p><p>It scared him, reminded him of how vulnerable he could be in the presence of alphas, Kuchiki Touya’s words ringing in his ears like a broken record.</p><p>He stifled another whimper from coming through his lips, his body felt weak, and fear started to crawl on his back as tongues now running up and down his neck, away from his throbbing mark. <em>They wouldn’t, would they?</em></p><p>Despite the mindless lust taking over his body and his own head telling him to submit everything <em>now</em>, it didn’t feel right, not in the slightest. Their touches didn’t feel <em>safe</em>, their sweet nothings didn’t sound reassuring. And despite the blindfold, he could see his captors’ lustful gazes, slimy and <em>off</em>.</p><p>He could only hope what they said was right. That they wouldn’t touch him until the temporary mark was healed, even if he couldn't understand why, this giving his future self some time to plan an escape—if he was ever given a chance.</p><p>The fleeting thought of the mark made his fuzzy mind revisit a certain raven. He wished he had listened to his captain.</p>
<hr/><p>“Why are we going back to your brother?” he shouted at her small figure running deceptively fast in front of him. The dangai was always so dark and unwelcoming, but the wallowing aura surrounding her made the whole environment worse.</p><p>Ichigo volunteered to come with her rather vehemently after she had told him of what happened since her adoptive grandmother had her conversation with Renji, until the moment of his capture a mere second before the dangai closed on her exit. His eyes were wide in panic and a muffled shout for her to go echoed in her ears even now, despite knowing that they came for him, and not her.</p><p>She faltered at the memory, her voice trembling, “I don’t know! I...” she paused, her small shoulders shaking with the stuttering breath she took.</p><p>Ichigo came to a slow jog before stopping completely in front of her. The large cavern was lit from the red light of the <em>shakkaho</em> glowing in her palm, flickering with how tumultuous her state of mind was.</p><p>He wanted to reassure her, to say that it would be OK, but he knew how stupid that would sound. She didn’t need false optimism and he sure as hell wasn’t the type of person to give that.</p><p>“I shouldn’t have told him to run away,” she cursed with a wet voice, “I-I panicked and—”</p><p>“You couldn’t have known that they would come for him,” he argued.</p><p>“I should have trusted nii-sama more!” she shouted, her voice was escalating in its hysterics with every word, “I feared his involvement in the Kuchiki’s plan for Renji, and I can’t, I <em>can’t</em> let him do that to <em>my brother!</em>”</p><p>“Rukia!” Ichigo gripped her shoulders, turning her to face him, his eyes glowing with the red light of the <em>kido</em> she held<em>, </em>“we gotta find him first.”</p><p>She seemed to snap out of whatever self-hating delirium she stuck herself in, looking at him with her large violet orbs, finally clear. He was right.</p>
<hr/><p>He didn’t know the time, but he was certain it was only the second day after his capture the other night. The air was cold and with the faded of rustling leaves and chirping birds he knew it was morning. He shifted uncomfortably, both his feet were loosely bound to either side of the bed with what felt like the same resilient material that held his hands together above him and the blindfold around his eyes, soft yet durable, like silk. Not to mention they were enchanted with <em>kido</em> to sap on his energy. Smart. He could push himself to a seated position, his back resting aginst the multitude of pillows propped behind him, reminding him of how much he missed his 'nest', and how desperately he <em>needed </em>it.</p><p>He huffed, telling his head to stop wandering and continue his observation. He knew it was a structure somewhere above ground, surrounded by trees by the smell of pines he had grown accustomed to, and he suspected, giving his captors the benefit of intelligence, somewhere further away from civilized areas. Somewhere within a forest, then. High altitude, from the temperature and how his lungs seem to struggle just a little to capture oxygen in the air.</p><p>The mountain range in Rukongai's outer districts. </p><p>It didn’t narrow down his location by much, but at least it was a start. He cursed his luck though, he wished he had Hisagi’s geographical repertoire, with the way the structure was build—the arching ceiling from the way voices would echo, signifying at least a fraction of the building’s size—he was certain it would be something at least marked in maps.</p><p>Unless it was cloaked with spells. In which case, it would so that much harder for someone to find him.</p><p>He bristled. <em>No, I won’t be a fucking damsel. </em></p><p>He was more than capable of rescuing himself.</p><p>First, he must find out where they kept Zabimaru.</p><p>He would assume that, because the other scenario where they destroyed his zanpakuto would <em>not</em> be ideal and he would <em>definitely</em> be killing them with his bare hands the slowest, most painful way possible. And as much as he would love to do so either way, it would infinitely be better if they didn't break his precious Zabimaru. </p><p>Now, if he could only sense the damned sword as he usually did.</p><p>Since his captors left some hours ago, the pheromones started to fade and his head slowly cleared out, despite feeling like he was on fire and something hollow inside him was <em>begging </em>to be filled, much to his horror.</p><p>He shook his head, telling himself that it was whatever his captors put in him that made his body react so wantonly. They got rid of the dampener in his system too, from the look of things. </p><p>His thoughts wandered to Rukia, wondering if she had managed to escape their clutches. He knew they were coming for him and not her, but the thought that they could've captured her for the sole reason of keeping him at bay made him sick. He would do anything to keep her from harm’s way, and in the worst-case scenario rolling in his head, maybe they knew that.</p><p>He hoped she made it to Ichigo. He hoped they would try to find him. He clenched his bound hands into fists.</p><p>“You are a strong warrior and a fine lieutenant, Abarai,” he found himself saying, repeating the words his captain said to him.</p><p>His captain who <em>lied</em> again, apparently. Rather, he chose to hide something entirely too large and important from him, something that he should have known from the start. Something that <em>clearly </em>would devastate his future. As if his situation was any better now.</p><p><em>I didn’t listen to what he gotta say after the old hag left, did I</em>? he mused absently. He remembered rage at the things Kuchiki Touya told him, the things that would happen to him if he was to stay. Maybe if he had stayed, his captain would have helped him, and none of this might even happen.</p><p>In hindsight, he realized how odd it was for Kuchiki Touya to do that. She could’ve stayed silent, he would have gone in blind, not knowing anything, what with his captain seeming hesitation to tell him anything. He would have been an easy sacrificial lamb. It was strange to think that she might have done it deliberately, to scare him away. And it made him mad at himself that she succeeded. </p><p>Resolving to interrogate those suspicious Kuchiki <em>when</em> he got out, he tried his best to extend his <em>reiatsu</em>, to get a better feel of the room he was kept. He had expected his energy would be capped but didn’t realize how much of it was restrained with the bindings as he struggled to extend his <em>reiatsu </em>beyond what felt like a mere few feet around him. He might manage a mid-rank <em>kido </em>if he tried, however.</p><p>His stomach rumbled pitifully, and he cursed. He was damn hungry. Just when the thought crossed his mind, what sounded like a heavy wooden door opened into the room. A wave of alpha pheromone enveloped his senses again and he growled in frustration. It was the same person, the second captor who seemed keen on touching his skin. The thought alone made him wrinkle his nose in disgust.</p><p>“Good morning, Abarai-sama,” the man greeted sweetly, and an equally sweet, savory smell also wafted to his nose. <em>Food. </em></p><p>“I am terribly sorry for the lack of hospitality last night,” he said in a saccharine tone, “I am sure you are positively famished. We can’t have you becoming sick.” The material of the bed he was laid on rustled and dip, and Renji had to keep himself from getting jumpy.</p><p>The man laughed in amusement; his voice entirely too close by what seemed like his perch on the edge of the said bed—a large stature, then. “As expected from a lieutenant, even with an artificially induced heat, you can maintain your composure admirably. Ah, you needn’t know of that, do you?”</p><p>He was clearly toying with Renji, teasing him with bits and crumbs of information he couldn’t pinpoint. And his captor knew of his rank, <em>obviously</em>—who else in Seireitei was infamous for his long red hair and tattoos?</p><p>More importantly, the man said something about an ‘artificially induced heat’... which means drugs? An experiment? Was it the work of rogue scientists, the Twelfth Division?</p><p>He crossed that possibility. He didn’t want to think that even a man as devious as Kurotsuchi Mayuri would do something like this, and to a fellow shinigami at that. Then it must be something else. But his rational thoughts were rapidly fading away for the familiar, yet entirely unwelcome buzz as the pheromones in the room escalated, and the burning heat inside him was alight again.</p><p>What felt like wooden sticks touched his lips, along with a soft morsel of something delicious that made his thoughts focused solely on the sustenance<em>. </em>“Open up, Abarai-sama. I’m afraid you are in no position to feed yourself.”</p><p>He sniffed, regretting it as the musk of alpha scent invaded his nose, sharp and positively unpleasant, yet kept his lips firmly shut in bullheadedness.</p><p>“Why are you doing this?” he growled as pulled his face away, clenching his fists against his restraint. He couldn’t see his captor’s face, but he could tell he was smirking. The sound of lacquered wood clacking entered his ears, making him think morosely that his captor had put the food away.</p><p>“The same reason why any noble family would desire omegas, Abarai-sama.”</p><p>His thought process stoppered to a halt.</p><p>He cursed himself for his slowness, any thought of food and hunger faded completely out of his head. His captors were alphas. Which meant they were <em>nobles</em>. And nobles meant the information of his status was somehow being leaked.</p><p>
  <em>By who?</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>The council meeting took a lot out of the precarious control he had over his anger. Those simpering fools finally left the main house when he practically had to kick them out. His grandmother looked at him with a sharp look, before his grandfather took her away, an apologetic expression on his face.</p><p>Not to mention, something inside him, his beast, had been bothering him since the previous night. His emotion wasn’t supposed to be so easily baited, but the slightest provocation made by the loose-mouthed Kuzui made him lose control so spectacularly. And what was strange to him, was that the rage seemed to well not only from the baiting he took but from something else.</p><p>A sense of uneasiness gnawing within, telling him that there was something he <em>needed</em> to do before it was too late. An irrational urgency.</p><p>And imagine his surprise, that one of the objects of his worries and anger suddenly exited through their family Senkaimon, along with the boy whose goal in life seemed to irate Byakuya with his presence. He intercepted them as they walked through the garden path that led to the main house.</p><p>They were surprised by his appearance, but before he could admonish her, before he could tell the boy to return to his world, and before he could ask them both the whereabouts of his lieutenant, the boy threw him a punch that would have sent him crashing to the ground, if not for him catching the fist with his own hand and absorbing the impact.</p><p>He glared scathingly at the substitute shinigami. “I might have let Abarai do this, Kurosaki Ichigo, but make no mistake. I will not extend the same generosity toward your person.”</p><p>His own fist tightened around the one he caught, reveling in the crack of the substitute’s bones and the grunt of pain escaping his throat.</p><p>“Nii-sama, please stop this!” Rukia cried out, worried for her friend’s well-being.</p><p>He looked down at her, letting go of the human’s hand as if throwing away garbage. He was never so needlessly violent.</p><p>“So Renji punched you,” the substitute managed to still sound smug even as he cradled his fractured hand, “and I know you didn’t <em>let </em>him, he caught you off-guard, you asshole.”</p><p>Byakuya ignored the low blow. “State your business and be on your way,” he instructed to the teen, and as for his sister, “where have you taken my lieutenant?”</p><p>“That’s what we’re here for—”</p><p>“He was captured,” she anguished, cutting Ichigo’s words, looking at him with shame behind violet eyes, “forgive me, nii-sama.”</p><p>“Explain,” he demanded, voice barely above a whisper, belying the crackles of <em>reiatsu</em> surrounding him, the sudden pressure in the air. The uneasiness came back full-force, and he struggled to maintain his thinning control over the explosive <em>reiryoku</em> welling inside, his instincts screamed for him to <em>go</em>, but he knew not where.</p><p>“It was me... I was the one who suggested the idea,” Rukia admitted weakly, “I saw him with that lifeless look in his eyes and I just <em>couldn’t. </em>I couldn’t let it happen to him. And I couldn’t trust your intention in my fear for his life. I’m...”</p><p>“I do not need your excuses, Rukia,” the older raven cut harsher than what was intended, his eyes uncharacteristically heated, in a way she had never witnessed before, and she took an instinctive step back.</p><p>Ichigo glowered at the dominating display, taking his place between them and his face inches away from the glaring noble, molten ambers clashing against stormy greys.  “Get your shit together or I’m gonna tear you a new one.”</p><p>Byakuya’s alpha instinct roared, his control finally snapped at being challenged by a fledgling. His fangs started to protrude, and his nails sharpened, his eyes grew feral and his mouth snarled like the beast that resided inside. An animalistic sound rumbled through his chest at the human who dared to challenge his rights over that which <em>belonged</em> to him.</p><p>Rukia’s eyes went impossibly wide as she realized what was going on, and she clawed at her friend’s arm in hopes of snapping him out of the trance. “Ichigo, no! Stand down, show him you’re standing down, <em>please</em>!”</p><p>“<em>Like hell I will</em>.” His voice held a raw quality and Rukia knew that if this kept going, none of them would get away unscathed. And that was the last thing they needed.</p><p>“Byakurai!” she shouted, pointing both her hands crackling with condensed lightning at the two alphas who instinctively jumped away. The lightning bolts grazed and singed the tops of the sparse trees in the garden, shooting off into the air before dissipating. She panted, adrenaline rushing, and looked at the stupefied alphas before her.</p><p>“We are wasting <em>time</em>. Renji is still gone and we need to find him, not fight amongst ourselves!”</p><p>Ichigo looked at her, his chest heaving, and looked at the other raven who was glowering quietly.</p><p>“She’s right,” he said, straightening up and dusting his shihakusho. And although reluctant, the male Kuchiki seemed to agree. The subtle animalistic traits in his features receded as his stance relaxed.</p><p>The female Kuchiki sighed in relief. It was the first time her brother showed his pack possessiveness toward her. And as touched as she was to finally know that her beloved adoptive brother thought of her as his own, more so than the rest of his family, it was not under the best of circumstances and it certainly was not the time.</p><p>“Have you utilized the <em>reiraku</em>?” Byakuya said, finally, looking at his sister with eyes akin to shame, yet he managed to school his features perfectly in a split-second.</p><p>“I have,” she nodded, and restrained herself from crying again, “but I couldn’t sense him. It’s as if... he disappeared.”</p><p>“They won’t kill him,” Ichigo tried to assure the girl, knowing it was one of the bad things she had entertained in her head, “his omega status will make sure of that.”</p><p>“That may be true,” Byakuya confirmed, “and if so, then they must have kept him in a sealed location, where his <em>reiryoku</em> is made undetectable.”</p><p>That served to worsen their situation. On top of the fact that it was more than likely the abductors, which he suspected there would be more than one of them, were alphas and by a direct correlation, nobles.</p><p>As easy as it was to blame a person like Kyoraku Shunsui, Urahara Kisuke, or even Kurosaki Ichigo’s Father who was a former noble, for their knowledge of his lieutenant’s status, he could easily admit that they were more trustworthy than even his own council.</p><p>Then there must be a traitor in the Kuchiki Family.</p>
<hr/><p>He couldn’t last much longer.</p><p>He stifled a whimper, trying his hardest to not breathe. They were doing this on purpose, he knew. They wanted to weaken him with their constant wash of pheromones over him, heating up his already burning body until his mind was a jumbled mess. Their touches were <em>craved</em>, and he couldn’t help but fear that he would soon give in to everything and lose himself to his instinct.</p><p>The touchy one was whispering into his ears, holding his body to his chest as they were seated in the middle of the bed. His hands were now tied behind his back, providing him a fraction of space between them at the cost of feeling the arousal on the other’s clothed groin touching his bound hands. His legs were spread open by burning hands, the robes donned over his body held apart to show the wetness soaking his skin, utterly rendering him vulnerable and exposed.</p><p>“He’s ready,” the other whispered thickly, somewhere in front of him, staring at his shameful state, “he’s fucking <em>ready</em>, I can’t wait any longer—”</p><p>“Don’t,” the one holding him tutted, his mouth hovering above Renji’s neck, which was in no better state, “it is healing, it will not much take longer. Patience.”</p><p> “We’re hundreds of miles away from the city, he’ll never be able to find us. And it’ll be too late, even if he does.”</p><p>“Don’t underestimate him. Kuchiki Byakuya is the Head of the Kuchiki for a reason.”</p><p>Renji squirmed, trying to close his thighs and the hands holding them apart finally let him. He sighed, his breaths came in pants and if the blindfold was opened, his eyes would be glazed feverishly.</p><p>The hard flesh grazing his bound hands was growing more and more tempting, his clouded mind supplied him all the ways he could use it to his fulfillment, and before he even knew it, he was actively touching it.</p><p>The touchy one let out a breathy chuckle at his action, his hands starting to roam over Renji’s robed chest in response. “Oh, you have finally given up, Abarai-sama?” he whispered again, “do you want it so badly?”</p><p>“I do, I do,” he crooned weakly, craning his neck and nudging his head against the chest of the man who was too pleased with the new development. His other friend seemed even more interested now, the bed dipping to support the additional weight and Renji could feel the heat of another body by his front, <em>so close</em>, and another wave of hypnotizing alpha pheromones attacked his senses.</p><p>“And I’m,” he breathed, leaning to the man as if wanting to whisper something sweet. The man complied, leaning down so Renji’s lips touched the heated skin of the other’s ear.</p><p>He snarled, “I’m a Lieutenant of the Gotei 13 for a reason.”</p><p>Renji knew their eyes were blown wide in shock even without seeing them.</p><p>He grinned wildly, his bound hands behind his back was glowing red. His <em>reiatsu</em> flared, thrill and adrenaline overriding the heat as he knew <em>this</em> was his one opportunity that he had to seize no matter what.</p><p>“<em>Hado #31...</em>”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Reiroku is a technique used by spiritually-aware beings to visualize reiryoku as ribbons that they can follow to the source.</p><p>Join <a href="https://discord.gg/AUWfxFh52F">The Seireitei</a> discord server, meet a bunch of fellow ByaRen shippers (and gush about the beauty of our ship together!!!!!!!) along with hardcore Bleach fans, fanfic writers, and artists. Everyone is very nice and welcoming, like honestly, you'll feel straight at home no matter where your interests lie (as long as it's not illegal eeee)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Shakkaho!”</p><p>The red flare of energy blasted through the bounds around his wrists, small enough that it didn’t cause him permanent damage but he knew it would leave some scars. He tugged at the blindfold around his eyes, finally taking in the looks of his captors, and found himself expectedly unimpressed. Too bad the large one behind him managed to get away with a burn on his leg, not his nuts.</p><p>“You little bitch!” the other one screamed in rage from the far side of the room, having jumped off the moment his <em>bakudo </em>spell was cast. Coward.</p><p>“<em>Little</em>?” Renji stood upon the <em>red </em>bed, he noted in disgust, having torn through the silken cloth binding his ankles, and his nose flared in indignation, “says the fucking twerp, asshat.”</p><p>"You—”</p><p>“Stop!”</p><p>The bigger one of his two captors—<em>much bigger</em>, he noted, at least as big as Captain Zaraki without the temper of a fire furnace—limped toward his friend, his eyes wary.</p><p>“Now now, Abarai-sama,” he said slowly, his arms held up in a placating manner, “let us not be hasty, yes? With the heat coursing through your system, continuing this would do you more harm than good, no?”</p><p>Renji scoffed, thinking that despite being bigger, the man seemed to be more of a diplomat compared to his fireball of a partner. He jumped off the bed and stood to his full height, making them flinch. Ironic.</p><p>“Where is Zabimaru?” he growled instead while expanding his <em>reiatsu</em> exponentially now that the bounds were no longer sapping at his energy. As adrenaline coursed through his bloodstream, his own spiritual prowess filled the chamber and pressured the two nobles to their knees.</p><p>“Like hell we will tell you,” the smaller alpha sneered, his glare made weak with the stance he took, so pressed against the wall behind him it was pitiful.</p><p>“And you call yourselves alphas,” the redhead mocked, flexing his arms and cracking his knuckles, blood dripping all over his hands from the rebounding spell before. Hakuda and his limited expertise in kido were all he got, but he was confident he could take these two. They didn’t seem to be too intimidating, the swords by their hips didn’t look or feel like actual zanpakutos.</p><p>“You know the consequences of doing this, don’t you? They will hunt you down,” the giant alpha said softly, his voice borderline begging, and Renji knew they had nothing else going for them. The moment they had underestimated his prowess for their fear of his captain’s, they had abandoned caution, in his eyes.</p><p>“My Zabimaru,” he demanded again, giving them one last chance before he obliterated their faces.</p><p>The hot-headed alpha charged at him, his partner cursing his stupidity, and Renji was ready. He blocked the feeble punch with his aching forearm—truly a spoiled noble, not one of the warrior breed like Kuchiki Byakuya, not by a million years—swept his legs, and as the alpha fell, his foot went down and slammed against the other’s chest hard, cracking several ribs in the process as he delighted in the other's choked groan. He almost laughed then, the man got knocked out by one impact.</p><p>He snapped his eyes up at the bigger one, who took a fully defensive position. This one might be a bit harder to take down, or he could just—</p><p>“<em>Shakkaho</em>.” The red blast was concentrated this time, and as if in slow-motion, he could see the utter devastation in the alpha’s wide eyes as the kido grew bigger and engulfed the room in its fiery flare before shooting off his hand.</p><p>The impact was much bigger than he anticipated. The offensive spell exploded against his captor, blasting the wall behind him and leaving behind a large dent that took up most of that side of the room. He had to shield his head from the debris ricocheting everywhere, covering his eyes from the flurry of dust. There won’t be much of anything left of that touchy bastard.</p><p>He looked around the shipwreck of a room and looked down at the only other person that survived the blast. Well, his body, at least. He nudged the limp figure with his foot, only then noticing the <em>mon</em> on the worn kimono—pristine, mere moments ago—and cursed.</p><p>What a shitty noble family he found himself entangled into, he thought as he tore the crest from the unconscious—or dead—alpha’s garment. His captain would want to know this, so he tucked the piece of cloth on the sash around his hips, before making his way out to try and find his zanpakuto.</p><p>He scoffed as he stepped through the rubbles. “No guards? Cocky buggers, serve you right.”</p><p>It didn’t take long for the adrenaline-rushed Renji to find his zanpakuto, sealed behind an armory that he kicked open as easily as tearing apart a cardboard house. Zabimaru’s spirit hummed as he took it, finally within the arms of its master again.</p><p>Now to find Rukia. He couldn’t sense her within the vicinity, so his immediate conclusion was that she managed to get away in Karakura. It was relieving, but he was still paranoid. Utilizing <em>reiraku</em> was not something he was well-versed at, but it was the best chance he got to make sure she was all right.</p><p>The ribbons of <em>reiryoku</em> flared around his subconscious, as he searched for a string he knew better than most—and grabbed it. It led him outside, thankfully.</p><p>He strode the winding corridors of the large building. The construct reminiscent of a castle, but the explosive amount of red on the walls, the pillars, and even the decorative tiles made even his own vision eyes if he stared too long. Rukia’s ribbon guided him out of the massive structure, leading him down enormous, red-painted wooden doors and equally massive steps, he turned around and what greeted him was—</p><p>A temple.</p><p>His blood curdled. Kuchiki Touya’s dark promises rang through his ears as if she was there with him, whispering those eerie things to his ears. His adrenaline skyrocketed and cold sweats ran down his spine. His heartbeat was erratic and he felt as if the organ was going to burst inside him.</p><p>There was a need inside him, an itch he desperately wanted to scratch.</p><p>“Bankai, Hihio Zabimaru,” he found himself saying before he realized it. It would take away most of his energy, and if he was conscious of his actions, he knew he was making a terrible miscalculation.</p><p>He simply <em>didn’t care</em>.</p><p>He watched on as the monstrosity that was once his sword tear down the gigantic structure to its foundation, his eyes blank and the swinging of his arm was relentlessly cruel as he lashed on the rubbles again, and again, and <em>again</em>, even as the flesh of his wrists burn, blood splattering in the air and on his face, his skin and everywhere, until there was nothing left but red smoke and a hill of something made out of his worst fears.</p>
<hr/><p>Kyoraku Shunsui hummed contently, walking through the paved path surrounded by rice fields and the forest by one side as he made his way to a large <em>sakagura</em> where he always got his sake from—it was a given, after all, he owned it.</p><p>Rukongai was a peaceful place, given the right locations. District 3 of East Rukongai held most of the produce in the region, having the most abundant of natural resources around it. The rich forest surrounding it stretched to the outer districts, joining the mountain range beyond. The strategic location that was close enough to Seireitei to ensure its security and also a smooth trade with the inner-dwellers, making it one of the wealthiest districts in the entire Rukongai.</p><p>He greeted the gatekeeper of the compound with a warm smile, who bowed at his master’s entry. He could have his batch delivered to his office just easily, but he found that leisure travels in the late afternoon, watching as the sky grew more beautiful with the red flare of the sun beginning to set, to be another one of the peaceful activities he enjoyed. Too bad Juushiro couldn’t accompany him for such travels, most of the time, his health brought too many limitations.</p><p>He took a deep breath as he entered the pasteurizing facility, already smelling the sweet scent of the fermented alcohol steeping for decades in the very pores of the wood that made up the structure, the large vats, and barrels, where both the sake that was still at the beginning of the pasteurization process and the ones ready to bottle resided.</p><p>A <em>toji</em>, the person in the brewery who supervised the entire sake-making process from washing hulled rice until they were ready for bottling, greeted him with a low bow the moment he noticed the charismatic noble.</p><p>“You have outdone yourself, Maki-san, they smell even sweeter than usual,” he smiled, an indulgent tone as he praised the old man’s work.</p><p>The <em>toji </em>laughed, “Don’t flatter your own workers, Shunsui-sama. Ah, you usual batch.” He clapped his hand together, gesturing for the shinigami to follow him. Several workers manning the gigantic barrels of sake bowed when they saw the noble, who greeted them amiably, as they walked through the facility until they reached the bottling station.</p><p>“Two bottles of <em>kijo-shu </em>and two bottles of <em>daiginjo-shu, </em>and since we still have a beautiful batch of <em>ume</em> from spring, a bottle of <em>umeshu, </em>on the house,” the old man winked at the last part, picked up a large wooden box and pulling the lid open to show the bottles stored inside with dried straws in every nook.</p><p>Shunsui hummed pleasantly, picking up the <em>umeshu</em> and popped open the cork. Almost immediately the sweet and sour scent of <em>ume</em> wafted to his nose in the most beautiful way. A worker offered to pour the wine, which he agreed to wholeheartedly.</p><p>“I must say, Maki-san, <em>umeshu </em>in the middle of such a scorching summer? You know how to spoil a man,” they shared a common laugh as they tipped their cups and drank the chilled wine.</p><p>They chattered for a while, the topic of sake a common theme that both seemed to be very passionate about, for obvious reasons, before the shinigami captain noticed how red the sky had gotten as he peered to the windows. He thanked the workers and Maki for their hospitality before he took his precious cargo and made his way back to Seireitei. His sweet Nanao must have been worried, he didn’t exactly tell the lieutenant that he was going out that day.</p><p>Strangely, the sweet scent persisted even as he walked out of the facility, even as he made his way down the paved path surrounded by rice fields. And it only got stronger when the warm winds of summer carried from the direction of the forest, and this time, something inside him recoiled and he realized what it was.</p><p>He mentally cursed, flash-stepping to the trees, and his nose flared as the scent got stronger and his beast got rowdier, the wooden box tucked under his left arm rattled. He hoped the content inside wouldn’t spill—or worse, cracked. To be fair, there were worse things to be worried about at that moment.</p><p>He stopped when he was already inside the forest line, surrounded by tall cypresses and pines, the woody aromatics failed to dissuade his senses from the unadulterated sweetness that made his blood boil. Sweat gathered at his forehead, his body vibrating as he struggled to rein in his instinct to <em>hunt</em>. A flash of red caught the corner of his vision and he turned.</p><p>There, leaning low against the dark wood of an old tree, surrounded by underbrush and ferns, kneeled one Abarai Renji.</p><p>His body heaved, his skin flushed red and the disheveled crimson robe across his body clung to his sweaty form, the material borderline indecent with how sheer it became in its wetness. When he looked up his eyes were glossy and wet, his face bruised and smeared with blood, his zanpakuto held tightly in his wounded hands despite the condition the rest of his body was in.</p><p>“Who’s there?” the lieutenant hissed, his voice as weak as he was currently but he gathered himself to his feet in sheer stubbornness, eyes blurred.</p><p>“Heavens, Abarai,” Shunsui exhaled tightly, praying for self-control as the smell of a wounded <em>omega in heat</em> assaulted his alpha instinct. He took off his pink outer kimono, opening the wooden box, and poured the bottles of <em>daiginjo-shu</em> all over the robe as evenly as he could, the bold smell of the alcohol permeating through the cloth. It wasn’t much, and the risk of flaming the material was there, but it was better than nothing.</p><p>He approached the lieutenant, who was on his feet, and thrust his zanpakuto toward Shunsui with trembling hands. “S-stop!”</p><p>“It’s me, Kyoraku Shunsui, Captain of the 8<sup>th</sup> Division,” he tried to placate the young man with his identity, “I will not harm you.”</p><p>“I’m not a scared dog!” Abarai roared, irrationally offended, swinging his sword to maim the other, but Shunsui was fast, at least, faster than the delirious and severely weakened young man. He ducked and weaved close before wrapping his alcohol-soaked kimono around the redhead’s body, all the while holding his breath.</p><p>“It’s going to be all right, Abarai-kun,” he murmured, stepping away from the other, who finally paused and cringed at the strong scent of alcohol. It also served to calm Shunsui’s instincts down a notch. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if another were to find the redhead instead of him.</p><p>“Captain Kyoraku?” the younger of the two said after a while, his breathing was calmed down somewhat and Shunsui could see recognition in his eyes.</p><p>The captain huffed out an infinitesimal trembling in his answering laugh. “Don’t use <em>shakkaho</em> now, Abarai-kun,” he said, knowing the younger’s affinity for that spell, “if you don’t want to set yourself on fire.”</p><p>Renji gripped tightly at the wet kimono draped over him with bloodied fingers, sniffing through his stuffed nose only to wrinkle it as the strong smell of alcohol permeated his senses. Captain Kyoraku was standing several feet away, at a <em>safe</em> distance, and he could see how tense the usually laid back captain was. He belatedly realized it was because of him. He didn’t know whether to feel sickened or afraid of the obviously stronger shinigami who could actually overpower him if he wanted to.</p><p>Shunsui saw the redhead shrunk further, feeling sorry for the man who usually was so confident in his stride and exuded charisma to his subordinates, self-assured of his tenacity, strength and ability to defend and protect. His alpha instinct let up some of its lust, making way for the natural need to comfort the distraught omega.</p><p>Only, this was no ordinary omega. Abarai wouldn’t appreciate being handled like a precious artifact.</p><p>“Let me see your wounds,” the older shinigami said tentatively. Renji was suspicious, but he sensed no malicious intent in the other. Or maybe, it was his exhaustion talking, as he let Kyoraku approached him again and offered his mutilated hands.</p><p>The older man winced at the extent of the injury, awing over the redhead’s nonchalance of the painful state of his appendages.</p><p>“This will sting,” he warned as he poured another bottle of sake on the open wounds and lacerations to disinfect them, careful not to touch the bloodied skin. The younger bit his lips, his muscles tensing, but otherwise made no sound. Shunsui internally applauded such restraint. He tore at the sleeves of his <em>haori</em>, wounding the white cloth around the silent lieutenant’s now disinfected hands.</p><p>“Let’s get you back to Seireitei, and you may tell me about what happened to you,” Shunsui declared afterward. Whatever happened that made the lieutenant strayed so far in such a precarious condition all by himself, must have involved other alphas. He didn’t like the implication of that thought.</p><p>“I can’t go back,” the younger shinigami shook his head, looking lost, open, after being so guarded. The change in mood would be alarming if Shunsui didn’t know how the heat would affect the omega, let alone for his first time under such conditions.</p><p>“Abarai?”</p><p>“They’re,” Renji swallowed, looking around him as if he was still being chased by his captors, “my attackers...”</p><p>Shunsui frowned, not liking where this was going. “Who is?”</p><p>The lieutenant pulled something from the sash around his hips, a piece of cloth with the symbol of a crane with its wings spread in a near-perfect circle, and at that moment Shunsui knew that the redhead was facing a much bigger problem than he thought.</p>
<hr/><p>“Would you just tell us where he is?”</p><p>Byakuya felt his temper rising at yet another bout of loud shouts the <em>unneeded</em> substitute shinigami threw at him as they traversed away from Seireitei and into the districts of Rukongai.</p><p>They were only on their way to his study to discuss a plan to find his lieutenant when he felt a shift in the <em>reishi</em>. Only, as he noticed the other two obliviousness to his discovery, he found that it came from within, much like the uncomfortable feeling he had been having since his lieutenant’s disappearance.</p><p>In a second he used <em>reiraku</em>, in another he was flash-stepping away from the compound in an impatient hurry, Rukia’s worried calls for his name ignored. And as he expected, they followed. He had found Abarai’s <em>reiryoku</em>, which could only mean the lieutenant had somehow managed to escape the barrier that sealed the presence of his spiritual energy.</p><p>“Oi, Byakuya—"</p><p>“You can utilize the <em>reiraku</em> now, Kurosaki Ichigo, I have told you that,” he cut harshly, not bothering to look back at the indignant teen.</p><p>“Don’t be such an asshole!”</p><p>“Ichigo!” his sister’s voice was hard as she reprimanded the substitute in his stead, “Nii-sama said to follow him, so we will.”</p><p>The teenager grumbled. She had the penchant to subdue the immature alpha effortlessly, he observed, despite being a beta herself. He would need to look into this when this whole sticky mess was over with.</p><p>They were entering the forest line of East Rukongai, near District 3. There was a strange scent muddled with something sharp, reminiscent of sweet sake and <em>sakura yokan</em>.</p><p>Byakuya halted his steps, eyes narrowed to slits at the scene before him.</p><p>Shunsui Kyoraku was cradling the unconscious, <em>wounded</em> body of <em>his</em> lieutenant, draped in the man’s garish kimono and drenched in the scent of sake and the older man.</p><p><em>Unacceptable</em>.</p><p>Shunsui’s eyes were wide as if caught red-handed doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. “Now, Kuchiki—”</p><p>“<em>Step away from him!” </em>he roared, surprising everyone present as he lunged at the older shinigami, who in turn, easily let go of the redhead and jumped back several feet away. The lieutenant’s limp body would fall rather painfully if not for Byakuya’s supporting arms. The sweet scent of the omega became stronger and as he ripped the pink kimono away from Abarai’s body, the scent of <em>heat</em> assaulted him.</p><p>He now could see why Kyoraku used his sake-drenched kimono on the redhead, but his first instinct was to envelop his own pheromone over his lieutenant’s erratic one. The red robe he donned clung to his heated skin with how profusely he was sweating. His skin was flushed and his breathing was short. It looked like it was reaching its peak.</p><p>The raven shrugged off his windflower silk scarf and wound it around the omega’s slickened neck. He saw redness seeping from the sloppy bandages around the redhead’s hands, and anger along with protectiveness rose inside him. His alpha instinct tightly reined in, caged inside his self-restraint, for now, finding the safety of his omega the number one priority other than claiming him for his own. <em>Not yet</em>.</p><p>Meanwhile, Ichigo took several steps back at the assaulting scent of a fully matured omega in heat. He was not prepared for this, not prepared for the beast that had been prowling inside to rage and lit a fire inside every corner of his body, screaming out ‘claim’ and ‘mate’ and all sorts of things he <em>didn’t</em> want to do to Renji with every fiber of his being.</p><p>Rukia’s worried question, calling out his name, asking if he was all right, grounded him. He looked at the huge violet orbs of the female beta, her hand wrapped around her zanpakuto, and at that moment, he realized he didn’t want that sword to be pointed in his direction, more so than the urge to succumb to his instincts.</p><p>“He’s in heat,” the substitute shinigami gritted his teeth, making a point to breathe as little as possible, and to not throw any glance at the captain and lieutenant pair some feet away.  </p><p>“An artificially induced one,” Captain Kyoraku answered from his side on the opposite end, the Kuchiki leader and his lieutenant in their middle.</p><p>Rukia frowned, the worry gnawing inside her increased tenfold. “How do you know?”</p><p>“He said so, before exhaustion took him,” the older man answered, then pulling out a piece of cloth from his sleeve, tattered yet the symbol on it was perfectly intact, “and this.”</p><p>“The Tsunayashiro,” Byakuya growled. He expected another noble family, but he didn’t expect one of the Four Noble Houses to be so directly involved.</p><p>“Shit,” Rukia cursed. Both Shunsui and Byakuya shared the sentiment.  </p><p>Ichigo might have heard of the name from his father, but as someone who barely knew of his lineage, the implication was lost to him other than that it was much worse than they initially thought, from the way the other three reacted. “What do we do now?”</p><p>The older Kuchiki looked down at his lieutenant who was slack in his arms on the forest floor, frowning in his unconsciousness and his breathing labored. There was one thing he could do.</p><p>He unwrapped the scarf, loosening it enough to show the mostly healed mark at the side of his lieutenant’s neck, glistening with oils. Taking a shuddering breath, momentarily dizzied by the alluring scent, he dove down and bit into the mark.</p><p>He suppressed a moan, clenching his jaws, and forced himself not to swallow the sweet nectar flowing enticingly around his lips. He heard the human’s shouts and was thankful that Kyoraku understood what he was doing, as he heard the older shinigami tried to restraint the fledgling alpha.</p><p>“Nii-sama,” Rukia approached tentatively, keeping her distance as she watched him finally lifted his head from her friend’s neck.</p><p>“It will serve to calm the heat down,” he explained, his deep voice unnaturally raw, wiping the oils smearing his lips with the sleeve of his kimono roughly.</p><p>This time she tried to believe him. This time, she trusted him. But still, she worried.</p><p>“He is going to be furious,” the smaller raven said softly, wanting nothing but to walk closer to her friend, to cradle his head in her arms to make sure that he was all right with her own hands. But as much as she trusted her adoptive brother, she feared the volatile beast inside just as well.</p><p>“I am willing to take that risk,” Byakuya sighed, relief flooding as the strong scent from the heat was gradually subdued. He took to gather the taller redhead in his arms, hoisting long limbs effortlessly as he stood with a skeleton plan in mind.  </p><p>Shunsui understood. He had seen the same look before, decades ago, as the raven cradled another the same way, with the same care and tenderness. The same one who silently pleaded for his assistance, that he knew he would grant once more.</p><p>“Are you sure you want to go there?” he asked, to confirm his suspicions.</p><p>The Kuchiki looked down at the precious cargo in his arms, now peacefully slumbering. “Yes.”</p><p>“Where?” Ichigo asked, subdued after struggling against the older captain’s powerful hold and hurried explanation as to what Byakuya was doing to his friend. It still was horrifying to see, as if Renji was being devoured.</p><p>The older Kuchiki was silent, almost making him argue for an explanation, then, “...a secret escape of mine.”</p><p>If it was up to him, Ichigo would have asked for more details, but Rukia’s hand on his arm and her shaking head made him frown and kept quiet.</p><p>She wouldn’t tell her friend, but she also didn’t know of her brother’s plan. Wherever it was, he had been there before, and the older captain seemed to know. Her brother had not revealed everything of his past to her, not just yet. But she would trust him, wouldn’t she?</p><p>Given the consequence of her previous action laying limply in her adoptive brother’s arms, she had to.</p><p>“Use my family’s Senkaimon, then,” Shunsui offered, “but I cannot provide you with hell butterflies, not without getting detected.”</p><p>Byakuya didn’t need them, anyway. “I remember the way.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Byakuya-sama has gone outside of Seireitei, along with Rukia-sama and the substitute shinigami,” a nondescript guard reported in a hushed tone, his all-black ensemble blending with the shadows he kneeled within.</p><p>“He must have found the lieutenant,” Kuchiki Touya hummed, dismissing the messenger who disappeared into the darkness.</p><p>Kuchiki Ginrei massaged his temples, feeling his ancient age catching up to his weary mind. “He is going to go there...”</p><p>Touya glanced at the former head of their house, her husband looking older than he ever was, knowing the mantle that he had to begrudgingly reclaim. Their grandson would not be returning anytime soon.</p>
<hr/><p>“What will you do about the Gotei?” Shunsui asked the younger noble, the energy from the Kyoraku Family’s  Senkaimon hummed as they stood, preparing for Byakuya and his still unconscious lieutenant’s departure.</p><p>They returned to Seireitei through one of the many ancient underground passages the nobles used that went under Gotei and Central’s detection. It was not to Byakuya’s taste to be so furtive as if he was doing something wrong, but there was no choice in the matter. Rukia and Kurosaki Ichigo had gone first, their destination being Urahara Kisuke’s shop to inform of the preparations that Byakuya would require in his absence from Soul Society. He hoped the blond man would not delve further into the matter and simply do as he was requested, customer confidentiality applied.</p><p>“I will send a message to the Captain-Commander,” the Kuchiki said evenly, the weight of his taller lieutenant in his arms seemed like nothing to his impassive expression. It was a good thing that he bit the redhead, for the heat pheromone would alert everyone in the vicinity if he hadn’t.</p><p>The Kyoraku compound’s main house had been bare of occupants, let alone visitors, after the untimely death of Kyoraku Shunsui’s older brother. Left to his own devices, Shunsui governed his family as little as he could, choosing not to interfere with clan affairs, which the elders took wholeheartedly. With so, he was given free-range over the main house, compensation for his ‘cooperation’, though he had barely lived in it.</p><p>The Senkaimon would be collecting dust if it was a stagnant artifact.</p><p>“Are you sure?”</p><p>“I trust him more than the Kuchiki,” the raven admitted. Indeed, with his constantly scheming elders, the traitor within the clan, his own dominion had grown hostile. He wondered how long had it been going, and struggled to squash down the shame he felt for the failure as his clan’s leader for not knowing of the deep crack in the Kuchiki sooner.</p><p>Shunsui’s eyes softened, the near-slip of vulnerability in the younger’s eyes reminded him of when the raven was still but a young boy, naïve, in the process of being molded into the image of Ginrei Kuchiki to perfection. He had exceeded expectations, but to some, and for certain choices he had made out of his own free will, he disappointed. Not the perfect doll that they wanted, but instead, an eagle.</p><p>The older captain sighed. “Very well, I shall be your messenger.” The raven’s stormy eyes found Shunsui's as he nodded his thanks.</p><p>“How long will you stay there?”</p><p>“I do not know," the Kuchiki said frankly, "the Tsunayashiro will not directly confront the Kuchiki. But they will try to capture Abarai again with greater forces, now that they know he is unclaimed.”</p><p>The uncertainty grated on his nerves, but he understood that not everything was under his control. He could not fight off the other clan on his own, not without turning Seireitei into a battleground, with the other families and parties of interests sure to take part to claim the unclaimed omega.</p><p>“I shall depart,” he straightened up, tightening his hold on his lieutenant’s body, “I thank you for your assistance, Captain Kyoraku.”</p><p>“Good luck, Byakuya,” Shunsui whispered to himself as he watched the raven and his cargo disappeared into the light of the portal.</p><p>He went back to his barracks after that, not able to stand being in his family compound any longer. Ise Nanao berated him when he returned, even as it already past office hours, commenting how reeking in sake he was while following him to their shared office.</p><p>“Nanao-chan,” he said somberly, leaning against his desk as he smiled weakly at her, “we still have that one bottle of <em>akaisake</em>, don’t we?”</p><p>She grew quiet, a frown on her youthful face at the strange expression her captain rarely donned. She rummaged through the cabinet obediently, reaching for the glass bottle at the furthest end, untouched. The liquid inside glowed in the sunset filtering through the window, a scarlet kaleidoscope as she poured it into fine, white china.</p><p>Shunsui hummed, hypnotized by the color as he took the offered cup. He swirled the vermillion liquid around, eyes drooping, and tipped the cup to his lips as sweetly as drinking the essence of a lover.</p>
<hr/><p>He woke up slowly. Languorously. Guilelessly.</p><p>His feet glided across the cool silkiness of the sheets, a pleasant scent as he buried his face to the large pillow cradling his head sleepily, letting out a content sigh. There was a muffled bustling in the otherwise quiet room, as if it came from outside and far, far below. He opened his eyes slightly and squinted up from the pillow, finding white ceiling shined by the afternoon sunlight outside, where his back was turned against. He smacked his lips as the sound of sirens entered his ears and—</p><p>He sat up, groaning when the dizzy-spells hit him. His vision went out for a second and the disorientation almost made him fall back to the bed again. He looked down his lap and picked at the grey sleeping yukata he was wearing drowsily and turned his head to the window.</p><p>A city skyline greeted him, skyscrapers jutting out like sprouts and reaching past the vision that the large, floor-to-ceiling window provided. Out on the edge of the horizon, a red structure extended amongst the sea of concrete jungles, setting itself apart with its shape, like a sculpture surrounded by blocks of stones. </p><p>“W-wh—” he spluttered, unable to form words as he clambered to the edge of the giant bed, almost tripping on his two left feet until he slammed his hands against the window, looking down to hundreds of feet below him, where tiny lines of roads cluttered with pedestrians and a flurry of traffic greeted him, the occasional sound of car horns and police sirens filtered through the thick glass.</p><p>This was <em>not </em>Seireitei. Not even Karakura.</p><p>The sound of a door opening and softly closed into the room made him jump, and he slowly turned around to face the intruder—who was carrying a plastic bag filled with something with a smell that made his stomach growled noisily.</p><p>The first thing that came out of his mouth was, “what are you wearing?”</p><p>Byakuya was unimpressed. “I see you are fully awake.”</p><p>.</p><p>Renji picked at the abura soba in the plastic bowl with his chopsticks, hunger already calmed down after two other boxes of Chinese fried rice and tonkatsu curry rice. He peeked over the counter where his captain stood overlooking the window in the living room, seemingly unaware of the stare.</p><p>It was decidedly surreal. The man was wearing what looked like human civilian clothing—a white, long-sleeved dress shirt rolled to his elbow, black slacks, and grey socks, yet he managed to make the plain outfit seemed something that came out of a fashion show. It was unreal to see his captain looked so... <em>human</em>.</p><p>Apparently, Renji had been asleep for three days.</p><p>He touched at the mark on his neck, hissing, catching the tenseness taking over the noble’s posture as he did so. He wanted to be angry again, eyes sweeping at the catastrophe he left inside the bedroom, the door left ajar showing torn sheets, shredded pillows, and downs scattered all over the bed and wooden floor.</p><p>“It’s the Tsunayashiro,” he said aloud, putting down the chopsticks noisily on the marble counter.</p><p>The older man turned, slowly healing bruises on his cheek and the front of his shirt ripped in some places, threads bare. Renji stifled the glee bubbling inside, his fists were still throbbing from his previous... activities.</p><p>“I didn’t expect you to know that name,” Byakuya responded, almost scathing as he faced the kitchen counter where Renji sat behind.</p><p>The redhead sneered, “I <em>do</em> learn things in the Academy as one of its <em>top</em> students.” The raven hummed, turning towards the windows once more, but said nothing. Not in the mood for confrontation, was he?</p><p>“Where are we?” he asked instead.</p><p>“Tokyo.” Was the automatic answer.</p><p>Renji rolled his eyes. <em>Obviously. </em>“I mean, <em>why</em> are we here?”</p><p>“That was not your question,” the older man made to turn his head slightly, an eyebrow raised.</p><p>The redhead growled at that, his fists tapping impatiently against the marble countertop before he slammed them down as he stood up, the minimalist chair he sat on falling down with a loud clatter.</p><p> “You need to learn to control your temper, Abarai,” Byakuya chided airily, nothing like himself, and nothing like what he <em>should</em> be. The last time he checked, they<em> were not on a vacation</em>.</p><p>“What, like you?” he threw scathingly—two could play this game. His captain wasn’t exactly all sun and rainbow either.</p><p>Byakuya’s eyes narrowed at the underlying insult. “I will not tolerate such disrespect—”</p><p>“You are not my captain right now!” he shouted over, uncaring for a useless <em>scolding</em> at that point<em>,</em> “just answer me!”</p><p>“Because they <em>will</em> hunt you down if we stayed,” the raven said in a suffering tone, “you have made yourself the target of the entire Tsunayashiro family with the way you destroyed their temple and killed two of their members.”</p><p>This, he had learned in the time that the redhead was asleep. An intel from one crafty blond shop owner, through his many ears. He hated to rely on the man for information, but as with a lot of things involving him lately, he had no choice.</p><p>Renji clenched his jaws, not liking the accusing tone he thought he heard. “Then in case you didn’t notice, <em>captain</em>, they captured me!”</p><p>“Do you think they will care? It will be simply another excuse to capture a fertile omega for their use, and the Kuchiki cannot help you.”</p><p>“As if they don’t want the same thing,” the younger snorted gracelessly, then just to add the cherry on top, “and there must be a fucking traitor in your family, no one in Soul Society but Captain Kyoraku and the Kuchiki knew about me.”</p><p>“<em>I know.</em>”</p><p>The frustration in his words almost made Renji sympathetic. Renji lived amongst Rukongai strays with nothing to their names, yet he could say with confidence that they were more trustworthy than his captain’s own brand of family. It was almost too ironic, how a man who was born with everything could trust so little.</p><p>“Which is why I took us here,” Byakuya continued, “the nobles are resourceful, yet they hold vehemence over the Material World. They will not try to venture here and seek us, not currently.”</p><p>His lieutenant was undeterred, however. “But why Tokyo?”</p><p>“I was...” he started, before growing silent.</p><p>He blinked slowly, getting lost in the visions of his past. Slow melodies and a warm body in his arms as they swayed, the clinks of wine glasses that kissed each other, precious moments fleeting and frail. His fingers twitched, the ghosts of a small hand in his own, almost too real, before he clenched them into fists and everything faded away.</p><p>“No, forget it.”</p><p>Renji wouldn’t admit it, but that split-second moment had him mesmerized. There was a warmth there, in his captain’s expression, as if he was looking at something dear, as he stared off into the distance. The man’s expression was soft, different from the one he had used on Renji before, more <em>intimate</em>.</p><p>Renji felt as if he was intruding on a moment when there were only the two of them. An ugly feeling surfaced but he quelled it down.</p><p>The mood had shifted, and he felt unable to hold on to the brewing anger.</p><p>“What are we gonna do now?” he queried, not bothering to interrogate the other further with his previous line of questioning.</p><p>“We shall blend in with the humans, I have prepared false backgrounds for both of us to take during our stay.”</p><p>Renji was intrigued.</p><p>“Like disguises?” he quipped almost too cheerfully to his taste, but he couldn’t completely diminish the excitement, despite the more serious part of their situation.</p><p>The raven let out a dignified scoff, amused by how practically visible the sparks were in his lieutenant’s eyes. He walked toward the counter again, taking a seat at the opposite side of where the redhead was currently standing and reaching for memo papers and a pen at the corner of the counter.</p><p>“Do not call me ‘captain’ anymore, especially outside. From now on, I am Kashiwagi Byakuya,” Renji let out a sarcastic snort that the raven ignored. ‘Fitting’ he muttered under his breath.</p><p>The raven continued without missing a beat, a barely-there smirk on his lips, “and you are Nitsukō Renji.”</p><p>“Why is mine so lame?” the younger complained almost immediately.  </p><p>“I think it is rather apt,” the raven opined, scribbling on a piece of paper and showing it to Renji. Heat crept up his face as he realized the meaning behind the two simple kanji.</p><p>Oh... did his captain just compliment him?</p><p>Byakuya leaned his chin on his hand as he looked up at his flustered lieutenant, “and as we will be living together, you will become my lover, of course.”</p><p>Of course—huh?</p><p>Renji looked at the raven with bulging eyes. There was, undoubtedly, a smile on his captain’s lips now.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>日江 – Nitsukō – lit. sun river. Renji thought it was a lame family name for him before he saw the kanji because he thought ‘nitsu’ as in ‘2’and ‘kō’ he heard as ‘ko’ which means ‘child’.</p><p>檞義 – Kashiwagi – lit. oak, righteousness (justice, morality, honor) there are other kanji for ‘oak’, but I like the meanings of the components of the one I use. As for ‘gi’, well, that just screams Byakuya, doesn’t it?</p><p>.</p><p>Don't freak out!! I'm planning on making it into a series, the next arc of the story will take place in mostly Tokyo and I figured it will have a different tone, so I think putting it in a separate work would be better xd</p><p>BTW, a specific paragraph of the last scene, and also the ENTIRE Tokyo Arc is actually inspired by my booli friend nimi's story called 'I Can't Help Falling in Love'. (she goes by the username trashwitch or amigaveneno here on Ao3) It's ByaHisa oneshot but with a sneaky subtle ByaRen sprinkled there, that lil snake LOL check it out, it's so touching and romantic XDD</p>
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